Aslan Is On Them Move pt. 2 of 5
[This message makes use of audio clips from Focus on the Family Radio Theater’s audio version of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.]
“You have a good imagination!” Paul Friskney describes that statement as an effective way to compliment a child or criticize an adult.
Last week we talked about our life as story and that understanding the truth that our life only finds meaning in the grander story that God is writing through history, really can give us the framework to discern the next steps we ought to take. If you believe that it should help us learn to play and dream and work and love with meaning.
You and I are free to imagine because even our imagining finds a right focus in God’s story.
This month we’re going to learn from the biblical tracks in the classic book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, now also a movie. How many of you have already seen “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”?
This morning we’re going to step into a world of fantasy that may help us think better about the world of reality. And, I want to pull back the curtain on where I’m going with this, this morning. I’m aware of some of the challenges some of you are dealing with in your life. There are many, many more that I’m not aware of, here is the key: God is.
Some are on the front edge of a life crisis. Some are a long way into the very long and painful journey. Still others are in a good season and may even feel guilty for being there or think it will always be this way-that maybe now you can coast because you’ve got it figured out. In all this, wherever you are in life you need to know this…God has a plan.
God’s design is that you would know Him well and enjoy Him a bunch. The way He has designed us to do life requires that we lean hard into Him. If you’re wondering about your next step in this life adventure, you can only come to know of your next step on your knees. God designed you and me for relationship. We can only do life well if we learn to listen well to the One who made us…the One who loves you…the One who has both the wisdom and power to pull off His plan.
In The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Pevensie children find themselves away from their parents and everything familiar to them. They’re in a strange, huge house and left to themselves. Lucy, the youngest of the four kids discovers a mammoth wardrobe that she can’t resist. And she crawls in. The feel of fur on her skin pulls her further in, to the second row of coats. Then she feels the cold and the scratchy branches of trees. Lucy took her first steps into the land of Narnia completely alone. And, God had a plan.
There are several layers of aloneness in the early part of this story. The Pevensie children are separated from their parents which may well help us understand the most important steps we take in life, we have to take on own. As much as parents may want some kind of insurance for their children there isn’t this kind of life insurance available. We have to either give ourselves to worry or we have to take the place of God, or we come to the place where we bow to the One who loves us and our children even more than we do and release our grip and understand, God has a plan.
Lucy is even separated from her brothers and sister. She is the youngest of four and probably able to count the number of times she’s been all alone on one hand. Maybe one finger. So, this is really a strange experience her. And probably uncomfortable. For her and for you. Really alone.
The point, I think, is that we enter the spiritual world alone. We can see the wardrobe; the invitation, and pass it by. We can feel the cold and turn around. We can see the invitation to a new world of trusting God, a world that’s completely foreign to us and run back to the familiar.
Or, we see the light and are drawn to it.
The entry point into the world of Narnia is the wardrobe and the marker on the other side is… the lamppost. The light.
John 12:35-36 Jesus replied, "My light will shine out for you just a little while longer. Walk in it while you can, so you will not stumble when the darkness falls. If you walk in the darkness, you cannot see where you are going. Believe in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light."
No one will ever walk with God without being drawn to the light and walking in the light. Some of you are at that decision point right now. Today. And, no one will ever walk with God without taking those first faltering steps alone. The invitation to this God-adventure is open only to you.
Men, you are not going to have a life with God because your wife does or your mom or dad did. Women, you will not ride in on the coattails of anyone else. Kids you need to know these are steps God puts before you. Steps for you to take. God has a plan and the only way to walk this path is to learn to trust Him and follow Him when we don’t know where it might lead us, only that He is the One we pursue.
Soon after Lucy steps into the land of Narnia she (literally) runs into Mr. Tumnus. A faun with legs like a goat and the upper body something like a man or an elf or something. Lucy isn’t nearly as fascinated with Mr. Tumnus as he is with her. Mr. Tumnus has a very important question about Lucy’s identity. Do you remember what the question is? Are you a “Daughter of Eve”? We come to find out in the land of Narnia, female humans are called the Daughters of Eve and male humans are called the Sons of Adam and only Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve can sit on the Narnian throne.
From the early pages of the book of Genesis to the message of the New Testament letters, God unveils to us that you and I, and those yet to hear, are objects of His affection and the targets of His grace. In all of creation, humans, the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve who have turned away from the rule of God are invited to know His grace. And, when we come to see this new world, we find ourselves in a place of privilege. Not because of our goodness, or personal ingenuity, but through His favor that will come at a very high price.
1 Corinthians 15:22 Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life.
The sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve are key players in the outworking of this adventure but we are not center stage. We are never center stage. Not in our own life story or the grander story God is writing through history and maybe that is the hardest part of the plan to learn. There would be no story…there would be no hope…unless, even before we were aware of our problem, that Aslan is on the move.
The first trap Lucy becomes aware of is when Mr. Tumnus breaks down and confesses he is a very bad faun. His feeling of guilt forces him to admit he has gone to work for the White Witch and his friendliness toward Lucy was only a cover for his plan to kidnap any son of Adam or daughter of Eve and turn them in to the White Witch.
It’s important, I think to stop and see what it is that moves Mr. Tumnus to confess. Does anyone remember what he says when he confesses to Lucy? You dads will forever I think…he says,
Audio clip: “My dear old dad would never have done anything like this.”
Even though he gave in to the pressure, his dad’s model of integrity showed him the way out of it. Take heart dads. When you follow God with integrity it will have impact on the next generation…someday.
The evil one (the White Witch) had intimidated Mr. Tumnus with all kinds of threats and he added his own fears. In the end his affection for Lucy causes him to help her instead. He begins to care more for someone else than his own safety. When the White Witch finds out, all their worst fears were realized, for a season. But, during all this: Aslan is on the move.
God has a plan. Even when we don’t see it and everything looks like it’s going down the toilet, God has a plan.
Lucy finally went back to the lamppost and through the wardrobe, sure that her brothers and sister were searching desperately for her. But when she got back, what did she find? They hadn’t even missed her. All that had happened in Narnia took no time at all in the real world.
When she told tell them about her discovery of course they thought… she was nuts. They wouldn’t believe her. It’s not unusual at all when we step into a relationship with God and discover His new world, so different than the one we’ve grown up in, others will think we’re nuts. But, Aslan is on the move. God has a plan. And, there will always be Edmonds around.
Edmond, Lucy’s just older, trouble-making, pain-in-the-posterior, brother followed Lucy into Narnia. He met the White Witch and of course she became the provider of what his appetite wanted most, Turkish Delight. She also promised that if he would come back and bring his brother and sisters with him, she would make him the future King of Narnia.
It is the pull of our appetite and our desire to be King and final authority of our world that creates such a trap for us.
1 John 2:16-17 For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.
Lucy and Edmond eventually find each other in Narnia and return back through the wardrobe. Lucy was excited to tell Peter and Susan now that Edmond too had been in Narnia. But she felt like more of a fool and there are few feelings worse than betrayal. Edmond made out like it was a game. He made Lucy look like a fool.
It makes me think of 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and the warning the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy.
You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that.
Finally all four of the Pevensie children make their way through the wardrobe into the land of Narnia. They find out Mr. Tumnus has been taken by the White Witch and they feel compelled to help him. At least three of them do.
When they meet a talking beaver and why shouldn’t a beaver talk, it’s a place where everything has to be reexamined. Listen, when we step into the reign of God everything is different in that place. What we have learned has to be relearned with God at the center.
But the news that makes them wonder most of all is when the beaver says:
AUDIO CLIP: “’They say, Aslan is on the move. Perhaps has already landed.’ …And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was but the moment the beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different as if something jumped inside of them. Edmond felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you just wake up in the morning and you realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”
It’s the awareness of Aslan and His movement, His activity that move people. Some hate Him and every thought of Him. Some try to tame Him or redefine Him. Some are filled with hope, though they may not yet be sure why.
The children come to understand the hope for the rescue of Mr. Tumnus really rests on the fact that Aslan is on the move. But they’re forced to confess they don’t know him.
“You’ll know Him when you see Him, the beaver says. Will we see him? They ask. And the beaver says these key words: “I’m to lead you where you shall meet Him.” Aslan is King of the Wood. The Son of the Great Emperor beyond the Sea. Aslan is a lion.”
Their first question is this… “Is He quite safe?”
There is something in us that wants to think God will be manageable for us. We don’t seem to mind thinking about God as long as He behaves the way we want Him too. But God will never be like that. He is more.
One of the most profound lines in the world of Narnia comes to them when the beaver says,
AUDIO CLIP: “Who said anything about safe? Of course He isn’t safe, but He is good.”
In spite of the fact Aslan is the great and powerful lion, Peter wants to meet him even if he’s sure his knees will shake when the time comes. And the girls, in spite of their very rational fear, find strange comfort in thoughts of just touching His mane.
Edmond, on the other hand. Like a lot of us, especially me, is being pulled by his self focused heart and his appetite for something else, “Turkish Delight”. So he sneaks away from the other to return to the White Witch. (Next week)
And so, in this land under the spell of the White Witch, where it is always winter and never Christmas. Where life has gone on so long with fear and confusion, finds hope in these words. Words that should give you hope in your real life today. No matter what you face. “Aslan is on the move.” Jesus is on the move.
The invitation to the throne of Narnia is something like the invitation to take our next step into a deeper relationship with Christ. We can survive anything as we long as we know God is writing a story in our life. As long as we pursue Christ.
As God whispers to us in Romans 5:8 …God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
And all the real world of creation waits in eager anticipation of your response.
[This message makes use of audio clips from Focus on the Family Radio Theater’s version of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”.]
From Chapter 2 “Into the Wardrobe”
This scene was used early in the service. The stage set included a large wardrobe (stage right) and a lamppost (stage left). There were no screen images. Stage lighting was used to help people imagine they are the ones stepping into the wardrobe and moving to the lamppost. Total time 3:31
• Begin at 1:36 The line begins “And that is how the adventure begins.”
• Ends at 5:07 “I wonder why there is a lamppost in the middle of a wood.” (end of chapter 2)
From Chapter 3 “But It Wasn’t a Joke” (approx 7 seconds)
• Begin at 7:26 Record only “Oh, my own Father, that’s his picture over the fireplace, he never would’ve done a thing like this.”
• End at 7:33
From Chapter 7 “Sons & Daughters of Adam & Eve” (approx 27 seconds total)
• At 7:23 “They say Aslan is on the move. Perhaps has already landed.’ …And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was but the moment the beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different as if something jumped inside of them. Edmond felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you just wake up in the morning and you realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”
• End at 8:10
From Chapter 8 “Help from the Beavers” (approx 7 seconds)
• At 5:45 “Who said anything about safe. Of course He isn’t safe, but He is good.”
• End at 5:52
