Life in Narnia

Sermon 6-24-18

Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Why did Jesus cross the road? (To get to the other side…. sorry that was kind of a bad joke) Well, that’s ok, it’s more of a story than a joke anyway… and Jesus’ disciples didn’t think it was very funny either. And it wasn’t a very funny thing that happened to them in the middle of the lake, on their way to the other side.

I used to live in an in-between, middle, magical place… called Central Jersey. You may have heard of it… very recently, if you are a fan of Stephen Colbert. The new governor made news for something that New Jersey-ians have known since forever: Central Jersey exists. It’s different from both North and South Jersey, and neither want to claim it. It’s a strange place of both Eagles and Giants fans, where I didn’t quite know whether to listen to NPR from New York or Philly (so I listened to both). It was described most recently as the “Narnia” of New Jersey – a place not everyone is convinced is real.

But I believe in Narnia…and I loved those books growing up. The first one I read as a kid, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” written by C. S. Lewis, tells the story of four ordinary kids who stumble upon this magical land of talking animals. The kids’ home in London is not safe, so they seek asylum from their eccentric Uncle, who owns the wardrobe in question.  

Inside, they find an entire country permanently blanketed by snow.  An evil Witch had forced everyone to live in a permanent winter, with never any Christmas. Now THAT’S mean!! Though honestly, after a few days this week, snow might have felt pretty nice.

The witch, however, is not the rightful ruler of Narnia – that’s Aslan, of course, a fearsome talking lion. The trouble is, no one has seen Aslan for a hundred years. And some of the Narnians are - understandably - wondering whether Aslan still cares about them, or even if he still exists. And this is where the human children enter the story.

Jesus too liked to tell stories, and if you remember he had just finished telling some tales of his own, in the form of parables. Last week we heard two short ones about seeds and mustard plants. Afterwards, Jesus decided it was time to go across the lake. Even though it WAS getting pretty dark, they left anyway, headed right for the country of the Gerasenes, an area full of people who were not at all like them. And they were not exactly eager to go there, either.

And to make matters worse, a big storm came along while they were in the middle of the lake. The wind and rain and waves beat down on their little boat - they were going to end up at the bottom of the lake for sure! In all their panic, trying to keep the boat from sinking, they remembered they had Jesus! But wait, where WAS he?

Um... excuse us, Jesus...

Oh, that’s right. Jesus was sound asleep in the back of the boat…. on a cushion. A CUSHION. Not cool, Jesus. Not cool.

I’ve never experienced a storm while at sea. And until I moved to Jersey, I had also never experienced a hurricane before. Give me raging thunderstorms or even tornadoes – I have experienced plenty of both growing up in the Midwest. But hurricanes? Hurricane Irene seven years ago was my very first. It ended up not being so bad, of course, but when it is 3 am and the weather channel is telling you to take cover because there are tornadoes forming INSIDE OF THE HURRICANE, things seem pretty serious.

Hurricane Irene happened only weeks after moving to New Jersey from seminary in Minneapolis that summer. I had recently moved, which did not go exactly smoothly either – the furniture was a week late, some my stuff arrived bent or broken, one of the cats couldn’t keep food down, and now Hurricane Irene. Welcome to New Jersey!

And yet, by the time the tornado warnings had expired that night, and I crawled back to bed, I wasn’t nearly as worried as I had been. Because while I sat on the floor in the closet, with the wind howling and the rain pounding outside… my two cats did not seem the least bit concerned.

"Excuse me... I AM NOT A SCARDY CAT"

Now, my cats are big wimps. One of them, Patches, will hide under the couch during a regular thunderstorm, like she did just this last week.

And yet, both of the cats seemed more concerned about what I was doing in the closet than what was happening outside. They poked their head in, like they were wondering what I was doing in there… and then wandered away to other night interests. And somehow that put me somewhat at ease. If these two scardy-cats weren’t overly worried about the scary weather outside, then maybe I didn’t have to be either. Maybe, just maybe, it would be ok.

  

In the midst of that storm on the lake, it may have seemed to the disciples that Jesus was asleep on the job. But Jesus didn’t stay asleep once his frightened disciples called out to him. No – when they called to Jesus, Jesus came to their rescue and calmed the storm. 

Similarly, Aslan, true king of Narnia, didn’t forget his people, either. Sightings of him increased as the witch’s power waned, and winter started to lose its grip. But the children visiting Narnia were very nervous when they heard that Aslan wanted to meet them. Seeing a lion in a zoo is one thing. Meeting Aslan the lion face to face would be very different. 

Before meeting Aslan, one of the children naturally consulted his new friend the talking beaver and asked, “Is he… quite safe?” 

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”  

That didn’t automatically take away the children’s fear when they did eventually meet Aslan. But they took comfort that Aslan had a plan to save everyone. Good would (eventually) triumph over evil. Though that doesn’t mean it would be smooth sailing before the victory was complete.

We often get the idea into our heads that once we become followers of Jesus, our lives will be all bubbles and lattes– all of our questions will be answered, and all of our doubts will be put to rest. That the storms of our lives will cease to rage, and it will be nothing but calm seas from here on out. Alas, this is not the case. Just look at the lives of Jesus’ closest followers. This storm was NOTHING compared to what they would face as they brought the message of Jesus out into the world. For sharing this love, they were often attacked, put in jail, and even killed for their trouble. Just look again at Paul’s list in our 2^nd Corinthians reading – we will face, afflictions, hardships, calamities, and more.

But that didn’t stop them. They kept going, and they kept rowing.

Since that first year in New Jersey, I’ve been through plenty of other storms, some of them really, really rough. Plenty of times I feared that the wind would knock me over, that the waves would swamp me… that surely, I would go down while Jesus seemed to be taking a nap. But Jesus was never really asleep on the job. Whenever I called out, about to go under, Jesus answered, often in the form of small but precious acts of love shown to me by friends and family. And on THIS side of past storms, I can say NOW – Jesus was with me the whole time.

The same is true for all of us – in our call to follow Jesus, we have left the safety of the shore, and often find ourselves out of our depth in unknown waters. Storms are still going to crop up. It won’t always be smooth sailing. We are in the middle of the story still – maybe right in the middle of some storms ourselves - when the way forward is still dark and unknown, and we will often be afraid.

The same is true for our own little “boat” we call Family of God. There are plenty of storms for us to face along our way where Jesus calls us. We aren’t always sure what’s waiting for us, both over the next wave or when we arrive on the other, unknown shore.

Sometimes we will be afraid. Sometimes we will feel small, ignored, and powerless.

But we do know, that no matter when, even though life is not always safe… God is good. We know that we are loved and cared for. And Jesus is with us always. Thanks be to God. Amen.