Sermon Tone Analysis

OK, so we are closing in rapidly on the end of our study on the Screwtape Letters.

Tonight we are going to be covering letters 22-24, correct?

Before I jump in, does anyone have any questions as to the direction that we are heading towards with the Wednesday evening services and my announcement of them becoming prayer services?

OK then, without any further ado, let’s jump in to tonight’s letters.

Letter 22: (Summary) - In this letter, Screwtape is obviously annoyed.

Wormwood has reported Screwtape to the Secret Police about some “unguarded expressions” in one of his last letters.

Screwtape has since smoothed it over but assures Wormwood that he will be dealt with.

Even worse, the patient has fallen in love with a Christian woman that Wormwood has failed to mention in communication with Screwtape.

Highlighted thoughts and statements and questions:

Question: How does Screwtape describe the patient’s newfound love?

Why is he so frustrated by her?

Answer: Screwtape describes her as vile, sneaking, simpering, demure, monosyllabic, mouse-like, watery, insignificant, virginal, bread and butter miss, two-face little cheat, filthy insipid little prude.

He is frustrated because he believes that she is the worst sort of girl for the patient to marry.

She is a sincere and genuine Christian—the type Screwtape would have loved to see fed to the lions in the early days.

Question: Screwtape is horrified by what he finds in this girl’s dossier (a dossier is a collection of documents about a particular person).

If hell kept a dossier on you, what would Screwtape find?

Would he be as upset and frustrated as he is with this girl?

Answer: (Answers will vary.)

Question: Why does Screwtape refer to God as a “hedonist at heart” (that is, someone who believes the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life)?

What does Screwtape mean by “Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us”?

Answer: Screwtape is forced to admit that God created all pleasures, and he desires for his creation to enjoy them without breaking the moral law.

Since a tempter cannot create any pleasures, his job is to make his patients look for and obtain pleasures in the wrong way (twisted pleasures) thereby breaking the moral code.

Pleasures used outside God’s moral directive are sin.

Question: Why does Screwtape describe the woman’s family and home as having an infectious stink?

Why does Screwtape say that this is the type of house that “he [the patient] ought to have never entered”?

Describe in your own words the experience of being around someone who is so transformed by Christ, that their presence makes you feel different?

Answer: Screwtape says the woman’s family home reeks of that deadly odor meaning the family and the household are characterized by righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Screwtape knows that being around people who are so transformed by Christ that their presence makes others feel different is contagious.

He is rightfully concerned about it rubbing off on the patient.

Those that are truly transformed by Christ exhibit a lifestyle that draws others in.

They are not fake as the world is fake, and they truly exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.

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Mention about Jesse (the young man who came and installed the dishwasher today and what he said about a lot of preachers and Christians that he encounters!)

Question: Why do you think that Screwtape hates both music and silence?

Read .

What does this passage say about the importance of silence?

Answer: Music and silence can both be a means of pleasure and grace to our well being.

Music has the ability to evoke an emotional response that can be used to praise God.

Silence provides an opportunity to tune out the distracting world around us and focus on God.

Our silence can be productive by helping us grow closer to God, and our silence can also be preventative by keeping us from saying and acting in a way that we should not—doing or saying things that could lead us to temptation and sin.

Question: Why does Screwtape prefer noise?Think about the noise in your life.

How can a noisy environment dull our senses and hinder our abilities to make moral decisions?

Answer: Screwtape says noise keeps the demons from having to worry with scruples and impossible desires.

Satan hates peace and quiet.

Noise is a great distraction, and it hinders us from thinking.

The greater the noise in our life, the more Satan is pleased.

Mention about all of the things that compete for out thoughts and our attention: smartphones, tablets TVs, radios and music players, video games and ALWAYS having to be in a crowd, or around people.

All of these things fight for our thoughts and our attention and serve to block open communication with the Father, through Holy Spirit.

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Letter 23: (Summary) - Wormwood’s patient has not only been assimilated into the girl’s family, but he has also found a new set of Christian friends.

In this letter, Screwtape says that if they cannot remove spirituality from the patient’s life, then they must corrupt it.

After surveying the patient’s new friends, he instructs Wormwood to attack along the two topics we typically like to avoid - politics and religion.

He is to create disagreements and confusion.

Highlighted thoughts and statements and questions:

Question: What types of attacks have Screwtape and Wormwood used up to this point?

How is the new strategy different?

Why could this be the most dangerous?

Answer: Up to this point, they have been using the world and the flesh to draw the patient away from the Enemy.

Both have failed them.

The new strategy is referred to as the “third and most glorious power” which is characterized by a “spoiled saint, a Pharisee”.

This could be a religious person (not necessarily a Christian) who wants to provoke arguments that end up dividing faith along political and social lines.

This could be the most dangerous strategy because most people can have deep-seated opinions on these topics—especially a religious person.

But even a religious people can be corrupted as long as religion becomes a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

This strategy could also be turning the patient into the Pharisee with the goal of tarnishing his reputation and faith.

Question: Read ,

What does Paul mean by “masquerading as an angel of light”?

Then, read ,

How can we discern which is light from God and which is from Satan?

Answer: Light is something that is automatically seen as being good, so Satan capitalizes on our love of the light in order to deceive us.

If he portrayed himself as something dark and evil, it would not be very appealing to us.

Most people are not drawn to darkness but rather to light.

Therefore, Satan appears as a creature of light to draw us to him and his lies.

In order to discern God’s light from Satan’s light, we must stay in God’s Word which will speak spiritual light into our hearts and help us recognize the difference.

Question: The “historical Jesus” that Screwtape refers to is an attempt by each generation to reinvent Jesus according to the scholarly ideas or theories of that generation.

As a result, it changes every 30 years or so.

In the prior generation it was promoted along “liberal and humanitarian lines”.

In the patient’s generation, it was being promoted on “Marxian, catastrophic and revolutionary lines.”

What is the fashionable teaching about Jesus in our culture today?

Answer: Answers can vary.

There are several options to consider including the prosperity gospel, the liberator of the oppressed, a non-judgmental God, a good teacher or prophet, or even the endorser of a political ideology.

Question: Screwtape identifies four opportunities where tempters can be successful using the “historical Jesus” theories.

What are these four theories?

Answer: In the first place, these theories seek to get us hooked on a false Christ who spews different teachings and direct our attention and devotion from God onto something that does not exist.

This is done by suppressing one part of Scripture and exaggerating another.

The second opportunity to pervert the historical Jesus is to cast Him as nothing more than a historical figure.

This distracts us from who Jesus really is and what He actually did.

The goal is to make him a “great man” and teacher similar to other great teachers like Socrates and Confucius who hand out solutions to every one of our issues using philosophy.

The third aim is to destroy any passion or devotion that you have for the real Jesus by substituting a “leader acclaimed by a partisan” or “distinguished character approved by a judicious historian” who “died a long time ago.”

This is generally characterized by substituting our quiet time, daily Bible readings, devotions, and prayers for the readings of various false teachers.

The fourth opportunity is to create a new history of Jesus and ignore the heart of the early Christian message.

The earliest converts were converted with a single historical fact (the Resurrection) and a single theological doctrine (the Redemption).

Letter 24: (Summary) - In this letter, humility is once again set forth as a major Christian virtue.

Having found a small fault in the young woman’s worldview (she believes that any belief different from hers is absurd).

Screwtape lays plans to set a trap for the man due in part because of his love for the girl.

Although this flaw is minor within the girl, Screwtape believes Wormwood may be able to exploit it within the man by causing him to develop real spiritual pride.

This is made somewhat easier by the fact that a group of very mature Christians have graciously included him in their inner circle of faith.

The patient receives this invitation because of his association with the girl and her family - not because he has earned the right.

Highlighted thoughts and statements and questions:

Question: Through correspondence with Slumtrimpet (the tempter in charge of the girl), what fault did Screwtape find in the girl’s character?

How did he suggest Wormwood take this minor flaw in the girl and use it against the man?

Answer: The girl believes that others who do not share in her worldview are either “stupid or ridiculous”.

For her, this assumption is not based on any real spiritual pride but instead on an ingrain set of beliefs from childhood as well as ignorance in how she interacts and understands the world around her. Screwtape suggests that Wormwood use this fault to lead the man into spiritual pride as he starts emulating those behaviors.