The lion is woven through history, literature, and art. Judy Garland danced with the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. He was perhaps the only lion who ever lived without the Right Stuff.
In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is a lot of time with Aslan, the great lion. He is the metaphor of Christ
and experiences much trial before the book is over 
to rescue Edmund, who has let himself get
caught in the snares of the Witch. Let’s watch
A lot of failure comes in life when we get scared. And we don’t even get taught that all lives have problems in them. We all keep hoping for that life free of fear. As we get ready for the Easter story, we are looking at animals that the Bible uses to tell us about God. We have been looking at the image of the 4 living creatures in the scriptures. And today we will hear Bible words about courage and strength and how our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered fear to bring in the kingdom.
The Gospel of Mark could be summed up as the struggle between fear and faith. When we do the Cambodia trip in August, we spend time each day in the Gospel of Mark. I believe that Mark is the book of the Bible most connected with Cambodia, but I can’t tell you more unless you go on the trip. But the disciples in the book are continually vacillating between fear and faith.
So it is with life. We all hate to be afraid. Last week, we looked at the eagle and how fear can keep us from even knowing ourselves. The peace that we find in Jesus Christ gives us the freedom to see the truth about ourselves.
But the Lion reminds us more of stories like Jonah, who knew what to do and was afraid to do it. Remember that God had shown him that Ninevah, a city state, was about to be destroyed for injustice. Jonah’s job was to go to Ninevah and preach so that people could turn from their ways. He was afraid to do it.
The story of Jonah is profound for you and me. Many Christians will not invite a friend to church, participate in a homeless project, go to a protest or even write a letter to the President because they are afraid. And it is not just Christians. Look at the MCI trial this week of Bernard Ebbers. Someone stole 11 billion dollars. We are not talking about taking the spare change from a postage account. We are not talking about an occasional trip that isn’t necessary for business. There must have been a whole bunch of accountants, managers, secretaries, and bookkeepers who heard a giant sucking sound as that much money left the premises. Some of those people were Christians. And now no one has any idea. Of course someone knew. But they are afraid of their knowledge.
We are vulnerable people. We often feel trapped in our lives and want to walk as softly as possible, hoping that we can scrape through and no one will notice. But Paul says in Romans 8:15, you did not receive a spirit of fear. You are a child of God, born anew to cry Father.
I want to suggest three areas in which we need to give our lives to the Lion of Judah, as the book of Revelation calls Jesus in chapter 5. First, we need to let go of our current troubles. If you have come this morning with some crisis or struggle in your own life, take fresh courage. Jesus has conquered like a lion. When you walk through a zoo, the roar of the lion even in this age of sound and rhythm still is able to make you wonder if the bars are strong enough. And Jesus has that same strength to get you through your trial. Psalm 127 reminds us that if God does not guard a city, the police who watch it are in vain. You are what the Bible calls a child of God. God says I am father and mother to you. Will the Lord not be a Lion when you need that strength and courage?
Secondly, we also need to be people who are brave to live and speak for justice. God says that the heart of the Lord is always closest to the least and the last. The Bible speaks time and time again about the poor, the minority, and the vulnerable. The issues of justice in our time are simple and we pretend they are complex. We need to protect senior citizens because we are vulnerable in those years before heaven. So of course, we call upon our society to continue the protection of social security. We need to stop spending senior retirement money in Iraq.
We need to be personally involved in making something right for the least and the last. The Spanish ministry is working on this orphanage in Honduras, we have the homeless project here, English conversation, tutoring for children after school, and trips to Bolivia and Cambodia. By December 31 of this year, will anyone’s life be different because of something you have done?
And lastly, we need to be people with courage to speak to the lost. Peter says in the first letter, be always ready to explain the hope that you have in life to someone who is lost. The least, the last, and lost occupy the heart of God. Surely, you can say to someone who needs hope that you found new life when you turned your life over to Jesus Christ?
The Amos passage is also about the warning of the Lion. God was rumbling at that time because God’s people were not a particularly just society. The wealthy had become connected to the trade routes that went through the country. High society had been born with little thought for the peasants. And so the Lion roared. And Amos says, God warns us that our fear should not be fear of the world, but a holy and good fear towards the Lord.
CS Lewis says it best in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The badger speaks of Aslan the Lion and says of course he is not tame, but he’s good. We cannot control events of life or control God. But we know that Jesus is victorious for us. We can be brave in life because the Lion is Judah is with us. He is not tame, but he’s good.
