Hebrews 12: 18-29 (links validated 7/21/22)

Few works of literature more memorably encapsulate the paradox of worshipping God with both joy and reverence than C.S. Lewis’ children of Narnia’s experience with Aslan the Lion. When Mr. and Mrs. Beaver first tell the children about him, Lucy responds by saying, “I think I should be quite frightened to meet a lion. Tell me, is he a safe lion?” “Safe?” Mr. Beaver answers. “’Course he’s not safe. But he’s good.” Those who meet Aslan or even merely hear his earth-shaking roar are appropriately awe-filled. They know that ripping them to shreds in a moment would be little more than swatting flies for Aslan. Yet when Lucy and the others look into Aslan’s eyes, they see something that makes them want nothing but him. They see a kindness and tenderness that’s fiercely determined to show them love.

When his adoptive brothers and sisters look into Jesus’ fierce but loving eyes at Zion, we see something that’s perhaps similar to what Narnia’s children saw in Aslan the lion. When Mr. and Mrs. Beaver first tell the children about him, Lucy responds by saying, “I think I should be quite frightened to meet a lion. Tell me, is he a safe lion?” “Safe?” Mr. Beaver answers. “’Course he’s not safe. But he’s good.” Those who meet Aslan or even just hear his earth-shaking roar are appropriately awe-filled. They know ripping them to shreds in a moment would be little more than swatting flies for Aslan. Yet when Lucy and the others look into Aslan’s eyes, they see something that makes them want nothing but him. They see a kindness and tenderness that’s fiercely determined to show them love.

In the spring, sudden storm on the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain trapped some of the best climbers in the world, and the slopes of Mt. Everest are littered with more bodies. In 1921 the British explorer, George Mallory, made the first extensive attempt on the summit which the “Sherpa people of northern Nepal refer to… as Chomolungma, [which is] Tibetan for “Goddess Mother of the World”. Three expeditions later, he disappeared just 800 feet below the 29,035-foot summit. The first successful summit was achieved in 1953 when Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary made the ascent. By the mid-1990s over 4000 people had braved the dangers of storm and ice, each one following Mallory’s reasoning, simply “Because it is there”...

surely the end of Hebrews 12 summons to mind C.S. Lewis and his classic description of Aslan the Lion in the first Narnia book. The children are first told about Aslan by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, prompting Lucy to say “I think I should be quite frightened to meet a lion. Tell me, is he a safe lion?” “Safe?” Mr. Beaver replies, “Course he’s not safe. But he’s good. He’s the King!”.

("The Tour de France, the world famous bicycle race, is well known for its grueling intensity. Lance Armstrong has won the race five times since his first victory in 1999. Armstrong is not only an outstanding athlete; he is a cancer survivor....")

Last October, we had the great privilege, Margit and I, of visiting the atomic bomb memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. There is a statue in the memorial of a girl with outstretched arms and a crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. Sadako did not live, but to this day people, mostly children, from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. We also visited the Peace Museum which provided information and insight into the events of August 6, 1945, which concluded World War Two. 140,000 people died by the end of that year in Hiroshima...