The eCrozier

Lent begins in Mark’s Gospel in the wilderness where Jesus is in a struggle between God’s Spirit that leads to life and the power of evil that leads to death. In that struggle, wild beasts and angels surround him. He’s in the middle of what would devour and destroy him and what would bring him light and life. This is our struggle, too. And it’s tempting for us to see the struggle as outside ourselves, believing that good or evil are waiting to step into the void.

In the 1970s, Flip Wilson had a TV show where he played a character named Geraldine. When Geraldine did something naughty she’d shout: “the devil made me do it.” It was never her fault. She was always innocent. After all, the Devil made her do it. But this distorts our view. It treats our agency as if we’re no more than toddlers incapable of taking responsibility for our actions. Since the evil is outside us, we would always choose the good if we were left alone to choose.

This is actually an old heresy called Manichaeism, named for its founder Manichaeus, a 3^rd Century A.D. Persian mystic. It holds that there’s a cosmic struggle between good and evil where God and Satan battle for our devotion. Our calling is to resist the forces of darkness and become enlightened by the Spirit of God. If this sounds familiar, it’s because many faithful people have adopted this Manichaen heresy to some extent. This heresy presumes the evil we face exists only outside ourselves. With such a presumption, we conveniently paint a good and evil picture of the world where some are evil and some are good; and where we usually place ourselves among the good. In such a worldview, there’s no room for self-examination and repentance because evil exists apart from us. We’re just victims of evil forces. Put simply, the Devil made us do it.

Of course, such a struggle between good and evil does take place, but it’s inside each of us. This is what the Church has taught for 2000 years. We’re all mixed bags. We’re capable of great acts of goodness as well as acts that we must call sin. Are we born that way? Or do we learn both the good and the evil? There is Bibli­cal and psychological evidence on both sides. Is it nurture or nature that forms us?

The Church comes down squarely in the middle of this debate. We emphasize the discipleship process because we know that the way one becomes a disciple of Jesus is by learning from others what that looks like. But we also hold the belief in what’s called original sin. Our human nature is “fallen” like Adam and Eve. We rebel against living under God’s gracious rule. So we follow Jesus know­ing full well that we’re rebels under God’s rule. The way to live faithfully, as the mixed bags we are, is to discipline our lives in such ways that we learn to live Good News.

This is why the Season of Lent is such a gift to us. This season helps us recognize the truth about ourselves. It helps us name the wilderness in which we live. Sometimes, I think the wilderness is a safe, attractive place to be. But I’m a fool to think that. The Biblical understanding of the wilderness isn’t some desert oasis like Palm Springs. Rather, the Gospel word for wilderness means “a place of terror, a place that destroys.” Alone I’ll more often than not consciously or subconsciously opt for death – for the wilderness is a harsh place and I’ll end up losing the struggle. But our baptism in God’s grace gives us real hope in the struggle because our baptism grafts us on to the Body of Christ. It’s impossible to be alone after baptism. Jesus didn’t go it alone in the wilderness. He had the ministry of angels. We, too, have angels around us on all sides. Some we can’t see, but most we can. They’re our sisters and brothers in Christ.

+Scott