A sermon preached by The Reverend Sarah Grondin, at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville, September 22, 2024.
May only the truth be spoken, and only the truth be heard. Amen.
There’s an old fable about the battle between two wolves that goes on inside us when it comes to making decisions, and as is often the case with these kinds of fables, the origin of the tale is unknown, although quite often it’s attributed to the Cherokee.
There are a couple of different versions of the fable as well. I actually found a variation that uses clowns, but I’m definitely on team “Clowns are Creepy,” so we’re going to stick with wolves.
The story goes like this: A grandfather was walking along with his grandson, teaching the boy about life.
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It’s a terrible fight and it’s between two wolves. One is evil–he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”
The old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I share this story with you because I think it gives a helpful visual of what James is talking about in our epistle today. James is speaking about the importance of wisdom, which is a common theme amongst our readings today, and James is challenging his readers to think about where their wisdom comes from….
Just like in the story of the two wolves, James tells his readers that there are two kinds of wisdom—wisdom that is pure and from God, and wisdom that is bitter and envious and comes from the evil of earthly things.
So he asks his readers, is your wisdom borne out in gentleness? Wisdom which is formed by peace, full of mercy, and bears good fruits? Or is your wisdom borne out in partiality and hypocrisy? Wisdom which is formed by selfish ambition, full of wickedness, and bears division and hatred?
Now, both kinds of Wisdom are available to us, the wisdom that comes from God and the wisdom that comes from the evil of earthly things… we know that we should walk in the ways of God’s wisdom, but sometimes we turn away from God, and sometimes we take the easy road instead of the road of righteousness.
We’re presented with choices and situations every day that demand us to choose either the wisdom of God or the wisdom of the world. If we circle back to the story of the two wolves, there are three truths that emerge from that story which can help us in choosing the good, even when it’s the hard thing to do.
The first truth is that the fight between the wolves is eternal. Or perhaps more accurately, the fight is never fully settled this side of eternity. We have to make a conscious choice every day to follow in the wisdom of God and feed the good wolf, because the wisdom of the world can be really loud—it can be so loud that it drowns out the steady voice of faith, hope, joy, love, and peace.
We also have to be careful not to slip into complacency, thinking that we’ve beaten the wisdom of the world and the struggle with the evil wolf inside us is over. The only one to ever live fully in the Wisdom of God was Jesus, and while we strive to follow in his example, temptation and sin get in the way.
So, we need to remember that there will always be both the good wolf and the evil wolf inside us—but it’s up to us to choose which wolf we want to feed.
The second truth that emerges from this story is that small actions can build momentum. Have you ever set a goal for yourself that seemed almost unattainable? When you look at all the distance between where you are now, and where you want to be, you start to wonder if it’s even possible to get from here to there. The goal is so big that you don’t know where to start?
Well what if I told you that the Fruits of the Spirit (Kindness, Gentleness, Patience, Self-Control etc.) are also habits? The way that we build habits is by repetition. We can build good habits and we can build bad habits. The more we practice the habit the more we reinforce it.
So when it comes to following the Wisdom of God and feeding the good wolf, it’s not an all or nothing situation. We need to work at building momentum. The ultimate goal of living a Christ-like life is daunting, but we can take some comfort in knowing that God doesn’t expect us to suddenly be perfect once we decide to follow Jesus.
We have to work at building those new good habits, and the more we choose to feed the good wolf by advocating for the marginalized, calling on our political leaders to act justly, caring for the earth, welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry and spreading God’s message of love, the easier it becomes to make that choice again. Small actions build momentum, and forming habits that feed the good wolf can help keep us going when we slip up and miss the mark.
The third truth is that we need to feed the right wolf, not the easy wolf. The wolf that’s first in line is the easiest one to feed. The evil wolf is there to encourage the easier options in life, to choose the wisdom of the world. Its easy to ignore the pain of others when they’re “over there,” or to buy the readily available products made in sweatshops and dangerous working conditions. It’s easy to water our lawns, wash our cars, run our dishwashers and washing machines whenever we want, or walk past the disheveled person asking for change or a meal.
There’s almost no effort required to do these things, it’s so much harder to weep with those who weep, to seek out fair trade and sustainable products, to be mindful of our water and electricity usage, and to recognize the face of Jesus in those begging on the street.
The first wolf is easy to feed, and in our fast-paced world we crave the easy options. Who has time for things that challenge all our ways of thinking and being in the world?
The second wolf is very different; the good wolf is picky, it’s much harder to feed. It’s time-consuming to do things like expanding our world view, learning about ways to care for creation, sharing the Good News of the gospel with others, standing up for people whose voices are being ignored, and recognizing that power and status mean nothing to God if we’re not using it to lift up the lowly, the lost, and the broken.
Doing these things takes so much energy, effort, momentum, and even courage. These are the kinds of things that we don’t usually see immediate results from and so it can be easy to get discouraged and fall back into old habits. But feeding the good wolf is always worth the extra effort, because when we feed the good wolf, we become the hands and feet of Jesus.
Which wolf we choose to feed defines who we are, and whose we are. In verse 18 of the passage we read today from James, it says: “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” When we choose to live according to the Wisdom of God instead of the Wisdom of the world, we don’t just do it for ourselves. When we practice those habits that bear good fruit we’re planting seeds everywhere we go.
We’re planting seeds of love, of hope, of justice, of mercy, of forgiveness… and all those seeds that we plant grow into a harvest of righteousness… a harvest that is abundant and life-giving for all. And maybe a seed that you’ve planted will be the first bit of momentum in helping someone else to feed their good wolf, and to choose to walk in the way of the Wisdom of God.
The wolf that wins is the wolf we feed. Which wolf will you choose to feed? Amen.
