THE WOLF IN ALL OF US

PART I OF "IT'S A BIG BAD WORLD"
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 4:1-10

There's no doubt that we're living in a big bad world, a broken world filled with sin and evil.  Just listen to the news sometimes.  But before we can do anything about what is happening out there in the world, we have to address what is happening within ourselves.  

It's an old, old story, born in the roots of time.  It's told thousands of different ways.  There are stock characters representing an innocent victim, a hero and a personification of evil, the villain.  In the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, the cast is Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother as the victims, the woodcutter, our hero, and the big bad wolf is the villain.

So who do we relate to in the story?  Red and Grandma?  The hero?  I bet we'd all like to be the hero, but if we take a good hard look at ourselves, and we'll find there's a bit of the wolf in all of us.

Oh, I don't mean that at any minute we're going to undergo some werewolf-like transformation and start chasing people through the produce aisle at the local grocery store.  No, it's much more subtle than that.  Sin and evil in human beings is about the daily choices we make..

In the story of the temptation of Christ, Satan, the adversary of God, goodness and the redemption of human beings, tempts Jesus to sin three times.  Each temptation is about the use or abuse of power:  power over the natural world, personal power and political power.  All this is Christ's if he chooses to bow down and give his allegiance to Satan.

Granted, it's doubtful that Satan is going to personally appear to any of us, society is constantly offering us choices that may form and reform our characters.  Our culture influences our ethics and beliefs, offering us choices that are counter to the beliefs of our faith.  One little decision at a time may take us further and further away from God, which eventually leads to trouble.

When I was a child, one summer when my grandmother was still alive and we still had yearly family get-togethers out at my Aunt Barb and Uncle Earl's farm, Uncle Earl decided the younger cousins needed some fun.  So, while the older cousins were cranking the ice cream freezer, he gathered us together for a game of follow the leader.  

It started out innocently enough as we trailed behind him through the barn, around the out buildings and then into the cattle pen.  That's when the trouble started.  Uncle Earl told us to climb into the cattle tank.  I knew better, but everyone else was doing it, and Uncle Earl told us to.  So, soaking wet, we continued on over to a very large gravel pile where Uncle Earl told us to climb up and roll down.  I knew better, but everyone was doing it, and Uncle Earl said it was all right, so I did it.  Then he led us back to our parents, and we got into trouble.

That's what happened in the original story where the villain is a serpent.  Adam and Eve thought the serpent was their friend and, trusting it, chose to listen to it instead of God.  "Go ahead," hissed the serpent to Eve, "Eat the forbidden fruit.  You won't die.  God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll be just like God, knowing everything, even good and evil. You do want to be a god, don't you?"

And so the first act of sin and evil (that is the intentional choice of disobedience) was committed by humankind.  Sin and death came into the world and was incorporated into our physical and spiritual DNA.

Some may argue, that like the wolf in the story of little Red Riding Hood, it's simply who we are.  It is the nature of a wolf to be predatory, and human nature to fall short from time to time, and there's not too much we can do about it.  I disagree.  As humans, we have the power to choose who and what will have control over our lives.  To take such a fatalistic view on sin and evil is to become slaves to the negative influences around us and powerless to temptation.

In the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the hero is a woodcutter.  In the first story, it's a carpenter named Jesus.  Both human and divine, Christ brought his humanity to be sanctified in the baptismal waters in preparation for temptation in the wilderness.  Jesus shows us that the way to defeat temptation is to choose God and His ways.  

Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are offered the freedom from sin and death.  When we choose Christ, we are no longer under the control of sin, unless we decide otherwise.  Through the grace of Christ, we are empowered to choose who we serve:  sin and death or righteousness and life.

In other letters to early Christians, the Apostle Paul advises them to "flee from sin."  To me, that means, "run to God."  I've found that the strength to resist temptation comes from intentionally choosing those things that keep me close to God.  I'm weakest when I become sloppy with personal spiritual disciplines like prayer and reading the Bible.  Like everyone, I need to be in worship on a regular basis, and I need to be in a small group Bible study with other Christians.  That's why I attend a  lectionary study with other clergy every Tuesday.

Christ gives us the victory over the "wolf" that is in all of us.  Through Christ, we receive the grace, the power, to choose to resist the temptations we are bombarded with everyday.  It is important to be intentional about what influences and forms our lives.  The decision is ours -- sin and death or obedience to God and life.  What will we choose?