FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

May 21, 2006

A THEOLOGY OF EVIL

Scripture: Genesis 3; Romans 7:19-25

INTRODUCTION

Last week, on Mother’s Day, we talked together about “The Doctrine of Perfection” which John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, discovered in the Bible as he read the texts about the spiritual process of sanctification – that is, to seek more of God’s holy presence in our lives day by day, and to strive for His righteousness to guide us in our journey of faith.

Wesley believed that deep down inside every one of us resides the memory of being created in the image of God, described in Genesis 1:26-27. If that was true, reasoned Wesley, then what Jesus has called us to do through His life, death and resurrection, is to recover our original identity and restore our relationship with the Creator who brought us all into being.

That was and is Wesley’s “Doctrine of Perfection,” and down through the centuries, Christians have developed a whole system of faith statements like that which we call “theology” – the theology of grace, the theology of forgiveness, the theology of atonement, the theology of salvation. For nearly 2000 years, the church has tried to describe in human language and concepts these great mysteries of God, whom we believe is sovereign and has been at work in this world since the dawn of creation.

I

But where we really struggle, often get into trouble and sometimes become confused - when bad things happen in this world and wreak havoc and pain on God’s people - is in the arena of what some Biblical scholars have called “A Theology of Evil.” (See “Deliver Us from Evil” by Dr. Susan Nelson, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and “People of the Lie” by Dr. Scott Peck)

One dimension of our difficulty is that we don’t know for certain where evil came from. Just moments ago, we read the story in Genesis 3 about Adam and Eve who are tempted by a serpent to eat forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Notice please there is no description or definition about the origin of evil, and so we are left to assume that God has allowed it to exist.

Another question which persists in this story is who was to blame for that original sin? As God asks our human forbears Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?...What is this that you have done? Adam points his finger at Eve and Eve turns around to accuse the serpent, somewhat equivalent to that famous line from the comedian Flip Wilson: “The devil made me do it!”

Which leads us to yet another burning issue (pardon the pun) as we explore the theology of evil: namely, the personification of the devil. There are 34 references to the devil in the New Testament, 51 places where Satan appears in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, two verses where he is called “The Tempter” in Matthew 4:3 and I Thessalonians 3:5, and one text in Isaiah 14:12 (The King James Version) where he is described as Lucifer, the fallen star from heaven.

Moreover, there are 74 Biblical appearances of demons and demonic behavior, as well as countless other descriptions from Genesis to Revelation where fearful images and harmful influences of the darkness are at work in this world.

So you can see the dilemma we face as people of faith in our attempt to comprehend the spiritual adversaries we are up against. The evidence of evil goes back to the dawn of creation, even though we don’t know for certain where it came from. And if we assume that our sovereign God has allowed evil to exist, then we may also wonder why, with all of the power of the universe in the palms of His hands, He couldn’t have punched the celestial delete button in the very beginning and fixed the problem. Well, He could have, but He didn’t.

II

So, with all of that said, it seems to me that there are two things upon which most of us can agree as we talk about and try to develop “A Theology of Evil,” and the first is this: Evil exists but we have been given the power to overcome it.

Evil exists – I know a couple of Christian scientists who would quarrel with that premise, and during my lifetime, I have encountered a small number of card-carrying atheists who simply don’t believe it. But just about everybody else, including Jews, Christians, Muslims and people who belong to other religions, acknowledges the reality that evil does exist.

The question is: “Are we willing to name it, to identify it within our own lives and to deal with it?”

Back in 1973, Dr. Karl Menninger, one of the founders of modern day psychiatry who was also a Presbyterian elder from Topeka, Kansas, wrote a book about it entitled “Whatever Became of Sin?” He began with an illustration which caught our attention:

“On a sunny day in September…a stern-faced, plainly dressed man was seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago loop. As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing toward the person nearest to him, intone loudly the single word ‘Guilty!’

Without any change of expression, he would resume his stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture again, pronouncing the one word ‘Guilty!’

The effect of this strange pantomime on the passing strangers was extraordinary, almost eerie. They would stare at him, hesitate, look at each other, and then at him again…and hurriedly continue on their way.

One man, turning to another who was my informant, exclaimed ‘But how did he know?’ Menninger continued: Guilty? Guilty of what? Guilty of over parking? Guilty of lying? Guilty of arrogance toward God? Guilty of unfaithfulness…? Guilty of evil thoughts – or of evil plans?”

(“Whatever Became of Sin?” by Dr. Karl Menninger, Hawthorn Books Inc. 1973, pages 1-2)

Dr. Menninger goes on to describe the Old Testament prophets who cried out those same words to the people of Israel in the 8^th through the 6^th centuries, God’s chosen people who had turned their backs on Him and wandered off into the wilderness of sin. And the conclusion this Presbyterian psychiatrist made in the book was that America in general, and the main line church in particular, had forgotten how to talk about the reality of sin and evil.

Almost thirty years later, Barbara Brown Taylor, the Episcopal priest, author and our good friend who has preached from this pulpit with great conviction, she wrote something of a sequel to Menninger’s book entitled “Speaking of Sin,” and this, in part, is what she says:

“Sabbath breaking and image making were once punishable by death. Nowadays, few church people think twice about mowing the lawn on Sunday or printing a picture of the crucified Christ on a polyester tee shirt. Usury and gluttony have ceased to be sins, along with swearing and gambling…The only sins openly denounced from the pulpit are low attendance, poor stewardship and failure to sign up for the Sunday School picnic.”

(From “Speaking of Sin” by Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 2000, pages 30-31)

Now, what we don’t need is more Bible thumping, pulpit pounding preachers who beat up on their parishioners every Sunday, sending them out the doors with guilt-ridden consciences, fearful hearts and anguished looks on their faces.

But what we do need are faithful preachers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders and Christian believers who acknowledge the reality of sin, the existence of evil and the age old battle between God’s love, grace and forgiveness revealed in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, over and against the deception, hatred and vengeance of the evil one.

III

The reality is that evil exists. That’s the bad news, and we had better not ignore it. But the good news of the gospel is that we have been given the power and a prayer to overcome it!

In Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul described his own battle this way:

For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do…wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:19, 24-25)

You see, when evil and sin threaten to do us in, our Savior Jesus has given us the power to remain faithful and a prayer to protect us. We pray it here in worship every Sunday and most every other day: “Lead us not into temptation.” That is called “spiritual prevention.”

But when we do fail and fall short of the glory of God, then our Lord has promised to forgive us and cleanse us from our sin as we pray in His name: “Deliver us from evil.” And that is called “spiritual redemption.”

If you have come here today, looking for prevention from temptation and redemption from your sin, then you are in the right place at the right time to claim God’s promise and Christ’s prayer for your life: Evil exists, but we have been given the power to overcome it.

Which leads us toward this final conviction about the Theology of Evil: The darkness is destructive, but it does not have the last word.

Dr. Charles Kimball has written a book about that darkness in our own lives and in this world entitled “When Religion Becomes Evil.” He wrote these chapters after September 11, 2001, when all hell broke loose here in America, and he is uniquely qualified to speak about such things. His paternal grandfather was Jewish, his grandmother was a Presbyterian, he is (as he describes himself) a Baptist in the South who is a Christian, and he has spent most of his adult life seeking to understand and write about the Muslims, and how these three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – can co-exist in our world today. The thesis of his book is this: Religion at its worst unleashes all those dark forces within us and in our world and leads us sometimes even to violence, as has happened down through the centuries. But religion at its best, says Kimball, can open to us all the possibilities of God’s love and forgiveness, and bind us together as people who have learned to live in peace.

We have invited Charles Kimball to come here and speak to us at an interfaith gathering next November, and I hope and pray that you will join us, because this man understands that the darkness of evil is destructive, but it will not have the final word in this world. Why?

Because of something Jesus said long ago which transcends races, religions, nations and tribal traditions. It is a word we desperately need to hear today in our war-torn and violent world, and it has the power to transcend evil and work all things together for good. So listen again to what Jesus said was the greatest commandment of all:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-40)

And then He went on to say:

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44)

That is the bottom line, my friends, and that is Christ’s final word. The light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not and will never put it out.

CONCLUSION

In closing, let me give you a glimpse of what that looks like. John Westerhoff, an Episcopal priest who has written many books and for a while was at St. Luke’s Church right here in Atlanta, was called to Northern Ireland to lead a conference of Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy. They also invited a group of children to be there as part of this gathering.

After the fourth day things were not going well and John Westerhoff, the conference leader, surrounded by all those clergy, decided to sit on the floor next to the children. There was a Roman Catholic girl there and sitting down right next to her, John Westerhoff told the story about Jesus who was touched by a woman who was hemorrhaging and was healed.

The little girl heard the story. She looked at John Westerhoff and said “May I touch you?”

He whispered back to her and said “Yes.”

She looked back at him and said “I’m scared.”

He said “Why?”

She answered “Because my father would beat me if he knew that I touched you.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need to know right now,” said Westerhoff.

And so she touched him, and she looked at her fingers and she exclaimed “Nothing happened!”

And with tears in his eyes Westerhoff replied “Oh yes it did. You and I will never see the world the same way again.”

And Westerhoff said that those clergy began to talk to each other, and the conference was transformed as people at a distance began to speak and pray and then reconcile one with another.

The darkness is destructive but it does not have the final word. Jesus has the final word - and He has given it to us: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you as well. That’s the light shining in the darkness and the darkness has not and will never be able to put that light out!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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