"Then the Lord said 'do not come near - remove your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy ground'". Exodus 3:5.
A very vivid recollection from childhood is the moment that Lucy, pushing her way through the coats in the wardrobe, suddenly finds herself standing in place of trees and snow. Like Tom in that 'other' garden, available only after midnight, Lucy quickly finds herself embroiled in the extraordinary events of another world, and yet, these unexpected things, are clearly of interest in some fashion to the narrative of her own kin - 'sons and daughters of Adam and Eve', as her first conversation will reveal.
Lewis' opening here is vitally magical and enchanting, beckoning us forward, but we quickly discover that all is not well in this 'other' place which enthrals us. Beneath the apparent beauty and stillness there lies a grave, murderous danger.
Winter has become permanent, and, as Lucy's own brother will discover, the malevolence behind such bondage will do anything to keep the inhabitants of Narnia literally frozen to maintain sway and dominion.
The arrival of Lucy, however, is not the only good news. She and her brothers and sister will bear witness to the breaking of tyranny because of the return to this imprisoned domain of the true King. He will break the tethers of slavery to merciless submission by being broken for all. He will shatter the altar of law by displaying a life above and beyond the powers of wickedness, fear and death.
Such is the one true story.
The past 16 months have been a season of such a winter queen. Those who govern have empowered numerous bodies and methods to envelop all of life in crushing layers of fear so that any normal behaviour was simply qualified as heinously wrong.
Life, quite literally, became frozen as it was locked-in to a comprehensive regime of restraint. How deep this has become can be seen in the general reluctance to put aside impositions, even when permission has been granted to do so, and in the fact that the authorities have admitted that they have no scheme for seeing what was (prior to March, 2020) be so once again.
During these times, the church has, at best, played the role of a lone fawn, living in the hope that something might happen, but incapable of acting in a manner that would bring what is necessary for health. As with the character in Lewis' story, the mainstream churches have actually worked in a fashion to woo and calm the majority of church-goers into a place where they can be 'collected' by the narrative, but lately, one or two have seen the folly of such choices as they themselves have comprehended the full ramifications of where this leaves all of us.
In the war for the dying children of Adam, there can be only one true place of safety - a single haven that will take us home. We may indeed, now, partake in struggles and conflicts against more than flesh and blood, but the victory was won at that broken altar, that cursed tree, where the blood of the King secured victory.
Christianity revolves around a fundamental truth - that death is the only gateway, the exclusive threshold to resurrection and participation in immortal redemption. We die with Him, but that essential crucible means that in God, all of life becomes eternally sacred.
We are not given over to a mind-set of fear, that we should be driven by blind dread into what to do.
What now, then should we be doing in respect to ineffective face-masking, troublesome social distancing and failing (see the double-jabbed death rates) vaccines?
All will fail, but the roar of the Lion-Lamb of Judah, calling us through death into life.
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