Perseverance

Reading spiritual autobiographies

Lately, I have been reading spiritual autobiographies. Each story is unique. Together they invite us to remember the power of the Spirit to touch and shape life. The stories remind us that God’s story reaches beyond any single time or place and we can find encouragement in the stories of God’s touch in the lives of others, and even companions along the way.

Schweitzer’s long obedience

Albert Schweitzer’s autobiography was recently pub-lished in a fiftieth anniversary edition. Son of a Lutheran pastor, he earned advanced degrees in philosophy, theology, and medicine, was a concert organist and wrote a classic on J.S. Bach––clearly an underachiever. I especially enjoyed reading in his autobiography shorter versions of his book on the gospels, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, and on Paul, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, classics which I read in seminary. In his autobiography the books were described with deeper connections to his own faith and life. He had written about Jesus as an apocalyptic figure, and also about Paul living in expectation of the Kingdom with a mystical faith. I sensed this was part of Schweitzer’s own faith, too. He argues that the heart of Paul is not located in the argument of “justification by faith” but living or “being in Christ.” In his own life, he sought to live in service and to make his life a witness to Christ with a universal reverence for life. His autobiography overflows with gratitude for friends who helped him persevere with academic projects, organ concerts, and support for the medical mission in Africa. His book made eminently clear how important friends had been in supporting his efforts and life.

C.S. Lewis, surprised by joy

I also enjoyed, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis’ spiritual autobiography. Lewis described the roots of his faith in his childhood imagination. He was convinced that there was far more than what we can see. This conviction later drew him to great stories in literature. As an adult, when his spiritual quest was in earnest, he read philosophical works. On a most rational quest for faith, he was impressed by arguments and moved by a number of things. He was touched by G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, so I read that, too. It moved me, a beautiful and touching picture of Jesus, his unique teaching and larger purpose. Chesterton connected the discovery of an early cave man to the cave in which Jesus was born. He makes interesting and often hilarious connections and contrasts. And then, perhaps because I enjoyed his humor, I also read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, a celebration not of doctrines but of the paradoxes of life and faith. It was there that I realized where Lewis had received the inspiration for a well-known line in The Chronicles of Narnia. When Lucy saw Aslan for the first time, she asked about the lion “Is he safe?” You may know the answer to that question: “No, but he’s good.”

In Orthodoxy, Chesterton described the lion and the lamb lying down together (Isaiah 11:6, where it is actually a wolf, a lion is mentioned later in the verse); and he insists that it is critical that the lion isn’t “lambized.” If the lion loses all its fierceness, then it is no longer really a lion. The miracle is that these two animals, in full possession of their natures, lie down together. The image is an irreducible paradox for Chesterton. And it suggests for Chesterton other paradoxes, like that of Jesus’ own nature, fully human and fully divine. Orthodoxy, Chesterton argued, is all about holding together the paradoxes.

Chesterton described his own faith as the discovery in his teens that most of the answers people gave about life, religion and a host of things were inadequate or simply wrong. He took pleasure in pointing this out and did it in humorous ways. In a time when religion was ridiculed in England, criticized for its irrationality and contra-dictions, he took the challenge and celebrated paradox with insight and humor, and loved being both a defender of the faith and a gadfly. His conversion was gradual, intellectual, moral, and joyful. He was influenced by Charles Dickens and was an influence on C.S. Lewis.

Tolkien and the Christian imagination

C.S. Lewis’ faith was influenced by Chesterton, among others, but also by his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, also at Oxford. When Lewis was struggling with questions of faith, Tolkien suggested to him on a walk what he was confident Lewis already knew that myths are not simply stories, but the greatest myths reflect the deepest longings of the human spirit (actually, that longing is a part of the definition of joy for Lewis). And Tolkien then suggested that the story of Jesus was the greatest myth of all. What if this story was, in fact, true? Tolkien believed it so. Tolkien further suggested that Lewis’ problem was really not about rationality but about his will. It was the special touch of a friend.

Lewis also had a unique influence on Tolkien. While they did not agree on everything, and that is undoubtedly important to remember about the best of friendships. (Tolkien didn’t like allegories and thought Lewis was sometimes careless, like having a faun, Father Christmas, and a witch, belonging to different genres altogether in The Chronicles of Narnia, and perhaps being too eager to get a book to the publisher, whereas Lewis thought was Tolkien too perfectionistic and a bit slow with his writing). More importantly, Tolkien acknowledged that when he was ready to abandon his project of The Lord of the Rings, it was Lewis, convinced of its value, who persuaded him to continue. Tolkien didn’t write a Christian allegory (as Lewis had), but according to his letter, The Lord of the Rings was built on and included themes that were part of his own Christian faith, though placed in a time before Jesus. Both Lewis and Tolkien believed neither in a one-story material universe nor a two-story universe (adding a place for heaven), but a universe more like a skyscraper with room for elves and angels and more than can be imagined. Tolkien’s books have had an enormous impact, spawned the modern epic fantasy genre and defined the blueprint for modern fantasy. I think it also offers something special for our time. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings can help us in thinking about perseverance.

As a Roman Catholic, Tolkien prayed the Lord’s prayer ending with the words “deliver us from evil.” I want to share with you ten weapons against evil from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The weapons are neither swords nor spells. They are moral, spiritual, and communal strengths that may look weak in comparison to brute strength but end up being decisive. The Lord of the Rings is not only one of the greatest stories written. It is also the witness and word of a believer. According to Tolkien, it is a story of sanctification. The irony is that in a way it seems like a non-allegorical version of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Ten weapons against evil from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

1. Pity and mercy. Bilbo is merciful toward Gollum, which is depicted as a hidden strength that may look like weakness. Later, so is Frodo. Bilbo says, “For now that I see him, I do pity him.” In The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter two, “The Shadow of the Past,” we find these words “Many that live deserve death … do not be too eager to deal out death.” Tolkien frames mercy as something evil cannot understand and so cannot defend against. In a 1963 letter, Tolkien reinforced that pity and mercy have a providential role, even if not a determina-tive role. In fact, they are derived from Scripture. “Blessed are the merciful,” Jesus said (Mt 5:7). And “Be merciful even as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36).

2. Humble courage. The world is saved by Hobbits, the least powerful, but also the least power hungry. In The Fellowship of the Ring, book two, chapter two, Frodo volunteers, “I will take the Ring … though I do not know the way.” Elrond declares the improbable: “it is the hour of the Shire-folk.” Sauron’s blindness is his pride: he cannot imagine anyone choosing to destroy power rather than seize it. So, humility becomes a weapon against evil because evil cannot understand it.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation along these very lines: “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). The prophet Micah exhorts us to “walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

3. Endurance against despair. In this long journey with all its hardships and fears, despair itself becomes a battlefield. The weapon is endurance, staying constant through all of it. Frodo’s perseverance and Sam’s steady loyalty defeat evil’s strategy of exhaustion and loss of hope. In The Return of the King, book six, chapter three, we find these telling words: “He knew all the arguments of despair and would not listen to them.”

These themes are readily found in Scripture. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul wrote: “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame” (5:3–5).

In the opening to the Letter of James, we find these words: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2–4). In the Letter to the Hebrews we find: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (12:1–2).

4. Friendship and fellowship. Evil isolates us and turns us inward with fear, suspicion, and possessiveness. The weapon against it is a shared burden. In The Return of the King, book six, chapter three, Sam says “I can’t carry it for you … but I can carry you.”

The words recall Paul’s counsel to the Galatians (6:2) “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” They also recall Jesus’ words to his disciples, “I no longer call you servants … Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15).

5. Hope beyond “optimism.” Tolkien distinguishes between hope and sunny optimism. Hope is choosing to act rightly even without guarantees of a particular outcome. Tolkien uses the word “estel,” a word in Sindarin, one of the Elvish languages, meaning trust or faithful hope. Tolkien distinguishes between “amdir,” ordinary hope based on likelihood and “estel,” a deep enduring hope rooted in trust beyond evidence. “Estel” represents the deep conviction that good is worth fighting for, regardless of outcome. The motive is not winning, but faithfulness. Aragorn embodies this high hope. In fact, Estel was his childhood name. And in The Return of the King, chapter two, “The Land of Shadow,” Sam has a star moment. What he discovers is that: “In the end the shadow was only a small and passing thing.”

The Psalmist wrote, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why are you disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God (Ps 42:11). To the Corinthians, Paul wrote: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor 4:16–17). Paul’s Letter to the Romans includes this benediction “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (15:13)

6. Renunciation of power/refusing domination. In The Fellowship of the Ring, book two, chapter seven, “The Mirror of Galadriel,” Galadriel refuses the Ring. “I pass the test … and remain Galadriel.” So does Gandalf, Faramir, and Aragorn, each of whom wins a key battle precisely by not grasping. In the story of temptation, “the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Mt 4:8–10).

Paul wrote to the Philippians “In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death––even death on a cross” (Phil 2:5–8).

7. Moral integrity. Refusing “victory by the enemy’s weapon.” In The Two Towers, book five, chapter five, “The Window on the West,” Faramir refuses to take the Ring even to save Gondor “I would not take this thing … Not were Minas Tirith falling …”

To the congregation in Rome, Paul writes “do not repay anyone evil for evil … Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good” (12:17ff). And to the congregation at Thessalonica, Paul wrote “hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (1 Thess 5:21).

8. Seeing through manipulation and propaganda. In The Two Towers, book three, chapter ten, “The Voice of Saruman,” there is this cold and dangerous description of what was spoken: “All that it said seemed wise and reasonable.”

To the Corinthians, Paul wrote “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (II Cor 11:14). In Ephesians, we find these words: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:11–12).

9. Healing and restoration as the true counter to evil. In The Return of the King, book five, chapter eight, “The Houses of Healing,” the words are striking: “The hands of the King are the hands of a healer and so shall the rightful King be known.”

Jesus read the following words from Isaiah at the beginning of his ministry, a ministry that included much healing: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1). And so it is: “The hands of the King are the hands of a healer and so shall the rightful King be known.”

10. Providence/grace, the sudden joyous turn. In Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories, he wrote: “I will call it ‘eucatastrophe.’” In ancient Greek drama, “catastrophe” the final resolution and denouement, did not always mean disaster, but a decisive turning point at the end. Tolkien, the philologist, invented his word, “eucatastro-phe,” to accentuate the joyful ending. In fact, the ending is constructed in such way that no individual can take credit for it.

The core catastrophe of the trilogy is when Frodo fails at the last moment and claims the Ring for himself. The quest appears morally and practically lost. But Gollum unexpectedly intervenes, seizes the Ring and then falls into the fire, losing his life and destroying the Ring. The victory is not from Frodo’s strength, or military triumph or human willpower or a calculated strategy. And Gollum was simply true to himself. The salvation of middle earth depends not on power but on mercy––the sudden joyous turn which Tolkien saw as grace. It does not deny sorrow but breaks despair with joy.

There was no human hero, but Tolkien’s divine providence works through human freedom. While no person was responsible for the eucatastrophe, in a letter to Eileen Elger in September 1963, he described Frodo as an instrument of Providence because of the mercy he had shown to Gollum. Tolkien saw the moment on Mt Doom mirroring Christian grace. As he described it, the Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation, the ultimate real world eucatastrophe. Indeed, good can triumph beyond human power and imagination.

In Genesis 50:20, we find inspiration for the concept. After a betrayal by his brothers and many plot twists, Joseph finally was in a position of power and spared his brothers saying, “You meant it for evil, but the Lord meant it for good, for the saving of many lives.” Is this 50/20 hindsight?

There is an echo of this story from Genesis in the New Testament which looks forward. In Romans 8:28, Paul confidently declared to the congregation what they could also remember from the Genesis story: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” And from Revelation 21, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne, said ‘Behold, I am making everything new!’” (Rev 21:4–5).

Tolkien built the whole story of The Lord of the Rings on a foundation of Scripture. It is a story much about perseverance. It calls us to remember who we are called to be and remaining true even when things are hard. Tolkien suggests that we are not called to win. We are called to be faithful and to trust God.

Calvin came at the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints from its foundation in God. When he laid out the doctrine in the Institutes, he saw perseverance as the necessary consequence of God’s grace and the work of the Holy Spirit. He wrote “Perseverance itself is a gift of God” (Institutes III.24.6). Perseverance is not merely a future hope but the ongoing action of God sustaining faith within the believer. Assurance may fluctuate, and true believers may groan under weakness, yet the foundation remains unshakeable––God finishes what God begins. Perseverance is ultimately a description of God’s character and faithfulness, that God will not abandon us. We shouldn’t be afraid or get discouraged but trust God.

What I have learned about perseverance

What have I learned about perseverance?

We really don’t know how the story of our life will unfold. Things change. But trust in God offers us a better foundation for dealing with all the unknowns than we could ever imagine. Perseverance is not merely a theological concept or a future prospect. It is the Holy Spirit’s presence with us.

Perseverance is a gift to us. John Calvin was insistent that perseverance is a necessary consequence of the gift of God’s grace. That should reassure us. But Calvin also understood that there would be trials and that the Spirit would be with us “through many dangers, toils, and snares.” Calvin would have undoubtedly liked Tolkien’s “eucatastrophe,” that God’s mercy not only changes the expected outcome in a surprising way, but it also impacts the story along the way. Tolkien worked to get the ending of The Lord of the Rings just right, without a human hero, but with a deep and joyful surprise that also used a gift of mercy that had been offered.

As Tolkien suggested, perseverance calls us to live as faithfully as we can to the call that Jesus has given us. The weapons are to be as faithful to Christ as we can be. It is no time to change aspirations or values. We are a peculiar people, like Hobbits perhaps. The grace of God is intended to make us more gracious, the faithfulness of God to make us more faithful, the love of God to make us more loving.

Perseverance is aided by the support and friendship of other believers. John Knox wrote about perseverance from his more pastoral perspective. Albert Schweitzer experienced the support of many friends in many different endeavors. The friendship of Lewis and Tolkien was a gift to them. It helped bring out the best in each of them. As Hebrews reminds us: “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” We have companions on the way. Tolkien used unlikely heroes and lifted up the importance of friendship, even with Hobbits.

Part of what makes this occasion of Theology Matters especially meaningful is the opportunity to renew old friendships and to make new ones. Remember, Tolkien’s first book in the trilogy is entitled The Fellowship of the Ring. Use this time. Believing that we are alone diminishes and weakens us. Real friendship strengthens and deepen our life. You have friends on this journey.

My mother’s witness

My mother was a model of perseverance for me. Late in her life when she had developed Alzheimer’s and was failing, we were in the backyard and she just started talking. She said that she had Alzheimer’s, something she never talked about I learned later from my sister who cared for her, and my mother added that she was forgetting things. And then she said, “The Lord has seen me through a lot of things in my life.” Her childhood and life could be recounted like the complaint of the psalmist. I knew the story.

She then looked at me and said: “It’s no time to change ponies now.” We both laughed. And then she said: “And when I forget my faith, you need to remember it for me.” Her words touch me still. It was the last real conversation we had. And I believe she knew that, remembering or not, Jesus would never leave her. For there is a healing love for us that is greater than we can imagine and that never lets us go.