What is your favourite quote?
Yesterday’s sermon briefly mentioned one of my favourite passages from C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
When Lucy hears about Aslan, the great lion who represents Christ, she asks Mr Beaver:
“Is he 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.”
Elsewhere, Mr Tumnus says of Aslan:
“He’s wild, you know. Not a tame lion.”
Yesterday I posted a creative reflection on the sermon, but this small part of it has remained with me. How Can I Give You Up
Lewis places a large theological idea inside a very simple conversation. In a few words, Lewis distinguishes between two things we often confuse:
Aslan is good. He can be trusted. His power is not cruel or arbitrary. He is merciful, loving and committed to setting things right.
But he is not safe. He cannot be domesticated, controlled or recruited to support whatever we already want. He is King. His goodness confronts evil, injustice and everything within us that resists love.
A God who never judged would not finally be good. He would simply allow cruelty, oppression and destruction to continue. Yet judgement without grace would leave us with fear rather than hope.
In Aslan, the two belong together. He is dangerous to everything that destroys us, yet gracious towards the people we might become.
What is remarkable is that Lewis expresses all this in a children’s book. A child knows that a lion is powerful and should not be treated casually. A child can also understand that someone may be wild and yet trustworthy.
It is simple enough for a child to grasp and profound enough for theologians and philosophers never to exhaust.
God is not tame.
God is not indifferent.
God is not safe on our terms.
But God is good.
The Afterword 
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