Who here is watching the World Cup? I don’t follow sports much primarily because I can get so invested in the wins and losses that it breaks my heart. It’s easier to not follow! But I do love all the side stories that emerge from big events like the World Cup and my favorite so far was the one about the lost wallet.

There was an Argentinian man who lost his wallet amid the masses who were already pumped up, singing and chanting. Some folks in the crowd found the wallet and started chanting the guy’s name while the man holding the wallet was held up on other peoples’ shoulders. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long until the owner was found. It was a genius idea, but what was so delightful is the crowd exploded in joy for the reunion of the man and his wallet.

It’s such a small thing that happened and yet we really are made for moments like this, moments of chalance, if you remember last week’s message. We are made to love each other, be delighted in the small connections and the gifts of community. It’s so simple and the World Cup is helping us see this in action.

Sadly, life isn’t always so straightforward, because we are also prone to the worst behavior. Humans have repeatedly committed acts of genocide and war. We are prone to judgement, domination, hatred, exploitation, and disregard. That’s not to mention how we can also be terribly judgmental of ourselves, deciding that we are perhaps more unworthy of love or forgiveness than almost anyone else.

We live in a complex world, inside complex minds and bodies that are both inherently puppy-like in our absolute joy in loving people and also wolf-like (my apologies to the real wolves) in our propensities towards various forms of violence against ourselves and others. That’s all happening in us, in one way or another and in varying degrees.

Now some of us are more puppy than wolf or vice versa, and that ratio within us changes and fluctuates with time and circumstances. Despite these changes, we all have our habitual ways of being in the world. The ratio of puppy to wolf in us is fairly consistent in any given stretch of time, right? Sometimes our ways of being in the world are mostly helpful and good for us and others. Sometimes they are not so good.

It’s not just individuals who are like this. Families too have habits and patterns, as do communities, countries, religions, and economic systems. However you define a group of people, there will be the positive and negative aspects. There will be our puppy-ness and our wolf-ness at play.

Paul, the writer of the letter to the Romans that we read today, would call the dark side of our habitual ways of being sin that we do that we may not even want to do. These negative habits and ways of being may be addictions, compulsions, avoidance of conflict, and many other things besides. We all have ways of being stuck in patterns as individuals and as groups that are not all that puppy-like, even if that sinfulness is turned inward and others don’t really see it.

The sin Paul is referring to isn’t just personal sins. There are also structural sins in our world that we cannot avoid. For example, it’s a safe assumption that everyone of us here is wearing at least one article of clothing that was made by people on the other side of the planet who are being exploited, which may include children or slave laborers. None of us would ask a child to stitch our pants or demand slavery for our shoes, and yet this is the system we live in. And it is indeed sinful to abuse people for the sake of money and greed and it is a system that we have a lot of trouble avoiding.

This is only one small example in our lives. We could point to many, many more. So, we are indeed captive to sin. We are stuck in the systems in which we live and we’re stuck in the human condition which so often involves doing what we don’t even want to do ourselves. Lord have mercy on us. God forgive us, right?

Given how sad this reality is, there’s the additional temptation of getting stuck in the despair that we are stuck. We can indeed get stuck in only naming the ills of this world, the ills of our country, the ills of our systems, the ills of our families, or even the ills of ourselves. We can get stuck in our own sad stories. We indeed get stuck. Lord have mercy on us.  

In the gospel, Jesus mocks the people questioning him and this faithless generation for all the ways they want to resist him and God’s action. Indeed, there are many ways we resist God. There may indeed be reasons to dance and we refuse, while on other days, there may be good reasons to mourn and we also refuse. Jesus invites us, the stuck and resistant ones, to trust that his way of mercy, gratitude, faith, and justice because it is indeed easier. It is lighter. The way of God is actually freedom from our own stuck-ness, our own sinfulness.

Jesus’ way of being in the world included a capacity to see the dark side of the systems that he lived in while also remaining committed to love and mercy. Remember how he treated various Roman soldiers who were enemies of the people as in his enemy? Remember how he treated people of different cultures and women of dubious backgrounds? Sick people? Possessed people? Selfish people?  Scandalous to some and yet this is what freedom from sin and stuck-ness looks like, no?

We are less skilled at living gracefully in this world than Jesus maybe in part because we struggle to both clearly see and define the darkness of our worlds and yet still lean into our loving puppy-like natures. We can acknowledge all the feelings we may have about white supremacists marching on DC yesterday while also loving our country for what it is and what it can become, for example. It is also the call of Jesus to take up his path, to take up his yoke, to take up his way of being, and do the work of this world in his manner. And he assures us it is easier.

That said, we can’t just make this choice to be Jesus like on our own. There’s a reason why the first step of the 12-step process is to declare that we are powerless over our addictions, whether that be alcohol or greed-fueled economic systems. We are indeed powerless over sin, because it is a part of who we are. It dwells in us and it is perhaps even seductive, like the snake whispering empty promises.

There are many ways God provides the music and we refuse to dance. There are many ways we resist our inner puppy-ness and give in to our wolfish, selfish ways. That’s why we’re here at church. In a way, this is a 12-step meeting in which we begin by saying our confession. We declare that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.

This is true because we are born the way we are born into a world that is what it is, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay stuck. Jesus’ yoke, his path of the cross, his teachings and his assurance that he will be with us until the end of the age is the way out of our bondage. Our freedom may not come all at once, but that’s also not how Jesus’ ministry was. He led and taught mostly through small acts of mercy, one at a time. He didn’t act on grand scales. He worked through one person, one sermon, one teaching at a time. We can do this, too, one day at a time, as our brothers and sisters in recovery often say. We too can choose our puppy-ness without ignoring injustice. We can allow delight and joy in the midst of pain.  

It is OK and even good to admit to how we are stuck in sin, because it is not up to us to get out. It is with God and through God that we are redeemed. Jesus invites us to follow him to find our way out of that stuck-ness with him. It is with him and through him that we will act in mercy towards others, simultaneously able to experience beauty alongside the dark. We can still give thanks to God for all the good that is while working towards justice and wholeness for tomorrow.  

AMEN