Not a Tame God

If you haven't gone to see Prince Caspian yet, be forewarned. I don't talk too much about plot lines, well at least not predictable ones. I'll post other thoughts in more blog form and less public speaking form within the next few days.

Delivered May 22, 2008

If you haven't seen Prince Caspian, I’d recommend it. I won’t say it is as good as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it is just a very different movie. More medieval warfare than a story of growing up and being brave.

The Christian nature of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is inescapable. It is very clear how the death and resurrection of Aslan reflects the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In Prince Caspian, the dialogue on faith is much more subtle, allowing people like me to dig deeply into it.

I looked through youtube and couldn’t find the clip I wanted to show, when it is available, I'll put a link in here.
So for now I’ll simply quote/paraphrase the scene I wish to use as an illustration.

At one point in the movie, there is a bit of a power struggle between Prince Caspian and the High King Peter Pevensie. Caspian wants to stay at the stone table fortress and ward off the attacking armies from there. Peter wants to go to the enemies’ castle and bombard them with a surprise attack. Both options seem rather gloomy and defeat seems inevitable. Lucy, the youngest queen of Narnia gets everyone’s attention and says, and I’m paraphrasing "why does everyone assume there are only two options, die here, or die at the castle?" and there’s some argument here and there and Lucy calls Peter out, smacking him in the face with his pride, "or did you forget who really defeated the White Witch?" Peter still filled with pride responds, "I think we’ve waited for Aslan long enough." And he goes forth to attack the castle and lose many soldiers.

Isn’t that how it is in our lives so frequently. We just plain think we know better than anyone else. We are too stubborn to hear the words of truth ringing through our ears, from any other source We continue to think, no, I’m right and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Peter thinks Aslan has abandoned them, that he is gone, that he doesn’t care about them anymore, perhaps even that Aslan doesn’t exist anymore. And what’s worse, he thinks he doesn’t need Aslan anymore. He thinks he can do it alone.
I know I’ve felt that way about God. If God really cared about me, he’d show up right now and help so I could see what he was doing, so I could know he hasn’t abandoned me, but I can do it alone. I don’t need him.
I’m sure in some way we all have done that.
We see it illustrated throughout scripture. Notably Jonah. God says go to Nineveh and Jonah says, no, I think I’ll run in the opposite direction.

Also the attitude of being forsaken is many Psalms.

From Psalm 10 – "Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?"

From Psalm 13 – "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?"

From Psalm 22, some words from Jesus’ own lips on the cross – "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

But now, we understand, that since God forsook Jesus on the cross and poured out his wrath on his only Son, that we no longer need to fear being forsaken. Paul says in Romans "The wages of sin is death." Death, being forsaken by God so that your life is no longer intact. yet he continues… "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Yes we have earned death with our sinning. We deserve it. But grace abounds because of Christ who died in our place, so that our death is not an eternal death, but rather a death that knows that since Christ was raised from the dead, we too shall be raised with him.

Eventually, Peter realizes his error and sends Lucy to find Aslan because he knows he can’t win by himself. Aslan shows up and does help, but in his own time, and in his own way. As the saying goes, "He’s not a tame lion." Just as our God is not a "tame God." We can’t put God into a box or wrap him around our finger and say do this for me now God. God can’t be put in a box, nor should we ever try to do so.

It seems that when God is placed in a box, he bursts out of it, much like he burst out of the tomb after it had been closed. If death could not hold him, how can we expect to?

And we should be glad that we cannot, because as the prophet Isaiah writes, '"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.' declares the Lord." And what great news, because his ways are superior to our ways. Amen.