Many of You Are Familiar with C.S. Lewis , the Chronicles of Narnia

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and ourLord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Many of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis’, The Chronicles of Narnia.

A series of seven fantasy novels.
Narnia, of course, is a make believe place.
Four children are displaced from London in World War II.

They are moved out into the country,,,,,,,

Where one of the children, Lucy, finds a wardrobe that allows the children to enter into a fantasy world, Narnia……Where the animals talk!

This morning we begin this message with a conversation the children, in particular Lucy and Susan are having…….with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about the Christ figure, Aslan.

Lucy asks, “Is—is He a man?”
Mr. Beaver sternly replied, “Aslan a man! Aslan is a lion—the lion, the great lion.”
Susan now jumps in and she says, “Ooh! Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
To that Mrs. Beaver replies, “That you will, dearie, and no mistake. If there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?”, asked Lucy.
And to that Mr. Beaver ends the conversation by saying, “Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Course He isn’t safe. But He’s good!”

Our God is certainly not safe.

He is terrifyingly dangerous for sinful people.
Yet He is also good and gracious for all who trust in Him.

There are Biblical images that depict God……

As a caring Shepherd (Psalm 23)
And a mighty Redeemer (Job 19:25).
And some verses even compare Him to a mother who nurses her infant children (Isaiah 49:15, Psalm 131:2, and 1 Thessalonians 2:7 just to name a few)

But the church dare not let these images remove the claws and the fangs of the Lion who roars from Zion.

The Book of Amos speaks frequently of this, including in our assigned Old Testament reading for today.
Revelation 5:5 tells us that Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord, is “The Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
His words have teeth and His voice is like a roar.

But our temptation is to overlook this, or only put God on our terms, isn’t it?

To look at God as a sweet, elderly grandpa that will pat us on the head, no matter what we do.
The temptation is to put our hands over our ears to drown out His roar.
The world, the devil, and the Old Adam continue to urge those who are baptized to clip the claws on the Lion and clean up His bloody passion.

It is kind of like the little boy who went to the St. Louis Zoo and was at the lion enclosure which had a floor-to-ceiling window of thick glass.

The young boy, knowing the lion could not possibly get through the thick window, began dancing in front of the king, just on the cusp of teasing him.
After a few seconds, the king was displeased; he roared and took a swipe at the little boy.
The boy slowly backed away from the window, eyes wide and mouth agape, awed by the teeth, claws, and roar of the lion.
He was a different little boy for the rest of the day at the zoo.

We need to be reminded of what I have entitled this message, “The Lion will never be safe, but He is very good.”

And this message is based on our assigned Old Testament reading for today from Amos, chapter five………
Where the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had the problem, in their minds, of taming the lion and putting Him on their terms.

The Northern Kingdom, from a physical, earthly perspective was doing well.

It was a good time to be in Israel.
The grain from the Galilean plains of Israel was in much demand…….
And her treasury was filled with coins from surrounding countries.

The people of Israel felt good about themselves.

This included their spirituality.
They had put God on their terms and thought they were doing so good.

So good, our Old Testament reading picks up with them even yearning for the day of the Lord.

Bright and optimistic.
Or was it? Not so fast!

Amos the prophet was sent to subvert their way of thinking and bring them back to reality.

To let them know their optimism is blind, false optimism…….
And the Lion still has teeth and a roar.

Amos asks them, verse 18, why do you yearn for the day of the Lord?

He tells them it is darkness and not light.

It’s like a student in an English composition class.

The student gets the assignment.
Hearing what he or she wanted to hear about the assignment the student is happy.
I know the subject and I can write the paper.
He or she turns the paper in and is excited. The student thinks they have done very well and are expecting very good results.
They can’t wait to get the paper back.

A week later they are handed back their paper to a large disappointment.

On the top of the paper in large print is “C minus” with much writing on the paper.
The English teacher explained that the student had written on their terms with what they wanted and not what the instructor had asked for.

We can do that with God also, can’t we?

We can rationalize things and put God on our terms.
I come to church. I punched my ticket. I’m meeting my obligation. I even go to communion.
I know they keep asking for help with things. But I just don’t have the time.
And I’m always nice and friendly to people.
I know Pastor is pestering us to be in Bible studies. He even had an insert in the bulletin about that last week. But at least I come to church.

Or those pet sins we just keep repeating, even to the place where we accept them and they don’t bother us anymore.

At the bi-circuit Reformation celebration last week the guest speaker’s theme was that we don’t take sin serious enough.
The Roman Catholic church, with indulgences, tried to buy their way out of them.
That sin I’m living in. I’m trying my best. And besides I’m not hurting anyone. God will understand.

The people of Israel at the time of Amos were optimistic and yearning towards the day of the Lord.

But Amos asks them, “Why would you have the day of the Lord?”
It is darkness not light.
And then he goes on to say, “You may have justified this in your mind, and think the lion is safe, he is not.

Amos then goes on to express the inescapability of God’s judgment.

He does this in verse 19 by means of a simile that portrays one catastrophe after another.
He says if a man fled from a Lion (representing God), he is met by a bear (symbol of judgment).
And if he now runs from the bear into the house and leans against the wall, he is bit by the serpent (another symbol of judgment).

Later go back and look at our Old Testament reading again. These words are pretty much the exact words that Amos uses.

This darkness, this night, will be a time of no escape.
You can’t run away from God and judgment.

And then God says something that may be startling but put the people of Israel and ourselves into reality.

In verse 21 God speaks in the first person and says, “I hate, I despise your feasts and take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”
“Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.”
“Take away from Me the noise of your songs to the melody of your harps. I will not listen.”

The Lion has roared judgment on the people.

The people are told they will not get what they are expecting.

What is the problem?The problem is that we cannot earn anything.

We cannot “do good” with the idea that because we “do good”, good will be done to us.
The problem was not with the worship. The problem was with the hearts of the worshippers.

We cannot come to God with less than sincere hearts.

What God established for eternal blessing, forgiveness, life, and salvation cannot be turned into just another task on the to-do-list.
Amos tells the people their hearts are not into it.
What we say and do is all to be an outpouring of Christ dwelling in us and our love and relationship with Him

Amos says that for those who look at things for themselves and their own standards, a day of judgment, a day of darkness awaits.

Darkness and gloom—creation undone.
Darkness as seen in the ninth plague brought on Egypt.
And well, darkness as seen by the five foolish virgins in the parable of the ten virgins in our gospel reading for today who had no oil in their lamps.

And what are we to do?

Well, there was another darkness talked about in the Bible.
Matthew 27:45, “From the sixth to the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.”
And shortly after that, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
And the One who said, “Let there be light” and the one who spoke light into a dark creation once again overcame the darkness.

Jesus is the exact reversal of everything Amos uses to warn you concerning the day of the Lord.

In Revelation 5:5 John is weeping bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
Then he was told, “Do not weep. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed.”

The last verse of our assigned reading from Amos says, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”

An ever flowing stream.
Not one dependent on rain but ever flowing.
What is the source?
God. The source for life, permanence, and dependability.

Righteousness and salvation flows to you in the ever-flowing baptismal waters.

And from this, justice flows down from you to serve your neighbor.

Today is our sandwich project day.

An annual event here at Hope.
Today ____ sandwiches were made to give to our fellow humans in need.

Right worship leads to right living.

May this be the way it is for us.
That our motives are proper and we are sincere.
That our actions flow from our love for our Lord and for our fellow man.
Not out of obligation or punching a ticket to look good or attempt to earn a higher status before God.

We all have a tendency to want a tame, safe, comfortable God.

We do need constant reminders that this gracious, loving God is awe-inspiring, and to be feared when we stray.
God, through Amos, gives us warning of this today.

When we fall short we repent and rejoice.

And we take heart
The Day of the Lord is coming.
For you, in Christ, and because of Christ it will be a glorious day.

A day of light, not darkness.

Jesus has received your judgment.
His light has overcome the darkness.
The Lion may be ferocious but He wants what is best for you and has already won the victory.
Amen.

(Please stand) Now may thepeace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Having heard the Word of God we now prepare our hearts to confess the words of the Nicene Creed as found on page 158 of your hymnal.