JR. Forasteros - October 11, 2015

Werewolves

Monsters

The Werewolf is a person who has a beast living inside them. We know what that's like: to have something inside us, something we try to control. But just like the monster stories, no matter how hard we try, the Wolf gets out. And our sin doesn't just hurt us, it hurts the people around us. So what's the cure? How do we get rid of the Wolf inside? How do we find victory from the Sin we've dealt with for so long?

From Series: "Monsters"

Why do we love stories about monsters? Vampires, werewolves, zombies and ghosts fascinate us - which is strange. Monster stories aren't really about monsters - they're about us. Monster stories externalize our deepest fears about ourselves. If we're willing to face our monsters head-on, we can find freedom and hope. Let the monsters die that the humans can live!

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When I was in high school, a friend of mine invited me to play Dungeons and Dragons. This was exciting to me for a couple of reasons: first, I am and was a huge nerd, so D&D had always been something I wanted to check out. And second, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, so this invite was exciting to me!

There was only one problem: I was a child of the 80s, which means I grew up during the so-called “Satanic panic” when America was convinced there were covens of Satanists behind every rock and tree. D&D was alleged to be one of their primary recruiting tools. So my mom was not thrilled that I would be summoning demons with my friends so that we could sell our souls to the Dark Lord.

I’ll spoil the ending: she eventually relented, and my friends and I played D&D for several months straight and no one ever even saw Satan.

We certainly weren’t interested in selling our souls.

But even today, in many churches, bring up D&D and people who wouldn’t know a d20 from a d10 are convinced that D&D is a tool of Satan, along with rock n roll music, high school dances, and a host of other activities.

Which begs the question: really? And, in light of our last series about asking better questions, “Are those the right places to be looking for the devil?”

Today, we’re going to see the answer to that last question is, “No. Actually, if you want to find Satan, you might want to start by looking at religion. Because according to Jesus, one of Satan’s favorite tools is not D&D, but the kind of religion that shields us from looking closely at ourselves.

There’s a way to be religious that keeps us from being honest about our sin, so it actually keeps us from God.

The good news, though, is that Jesus offers to shine the light of truth on our satanic deception, freeing us to follow him into God’s life!

Join us Sunday as we learn how religion blinds us and how Jesus helps us see.

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