Narnia- The Lion: Not Safe, But Good Series

Sermon: The Lion: Not Safe, But Good

NOTE ON SERMON: We began and ended this sermon with a “readers theater” out of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

BLACK

LUCY But we must save Mr. Tumnus, we must. LIGHTS UP

NARRATOR Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were all huddled within Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s cottage discussing the fate of Lucy’s friend, Mr. Tumnus.

LUCY He’s such a kind faun.

PETER Couldn’t we have some sort of stratagem?

MR. BEAVER It’s no good, Son of Adam. No good your trying, of all people. But now that Aslan is on the move.

LUCY, EDMUND, AND SUSAN Oh, yes! Tell us about Aslan!

NARRATOR They all said at once; for once again that strange feeling -- like the first signs of spring, like good news, had come over them.

SUSAN Who is Aslan?

MR. BEAVER Aslan? Why don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He’ll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus.

EDMUND She won’t turn him into stone too?

MR. BEAVER Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say! Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her own two feet and look him in the face it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of her. No, no. He’ll put all to rights as it says in an old rhyme in these parts: Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight, at the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, when he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. You’ll understand when you see him.

SUSAN But shall we see him?

MR. BEAVER Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him.

LUCY Is -- is he a man?

MR. BEAVER (sternly) Aslan a man! Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion.

SUSAN Ooh! I’d thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.

MRS. BEAVER That you will, dearie, and no mistake. If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just silly.

LUCY Then he isn’t safe?

MR. BEAVER Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

BLACK OUT

Brief intro of Lewis: C. S. Lewis, or Jack Lewis, as he preferred to be called, was born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898. In his teen years, Lewis abandoned Christianity. He saw religion as a "kind of . . . nonsense into which humanity tended to blunder." Lewis moved further away from Christianity after he left school in 1914 to be tutored privately by William Kirkpatrick, a family friend who had tutored Lewis’s father. Kirkpatrick, who was a staunch atheist, challenged Lewis to abandon conventional ideas about religion.

Later, however, as he entered his early 30s and settled into both his professional and domestic life, Lewis came to a real turning point in his spiritual life. This turn to Christ came as a result of faithful Christian friends, including J.R.R. Tolkien (who wrote the Lord of the Rings Trilogy). While riding on a double-decker bus in the early summer of 1929, Lewis suddenly felt he had no choice but acknowledge the existence of God. Shortly afterward, alone in his room at the university, he knelt and prayed to receive Christ into His life.

His Christian walk was accompanied by many doubts, inward debates, and discussions with friends. However, as a professor at Oxford and later Cambridge he eventually became a staunch defender of the faith, through radio talks and books such as Mere Christianity. He remains one of the most read authors in all of Christianity, especially by Pastors.

Initially when Lewis turned to writing children’s books, his publisher and some of his friends tried to talk him out of it; they thought it would hurt his reputation as writer of serious works. J.R.R. Tolkien in particular criticized Lewis’s first Narnia book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He thought that there were too many elements that clashed—a Father Christmas and an evil witch, talking animals and children. Thankfully, Lewis didn’t listen to any of them. The Narnia books have since sold more than 100 million copies and are among the most beloved books of classic children’s literature. (Bio taken partially from www.factmonster.com)