September 18, 2005
The Gospel of the Rings
Tolkien and the Calamity of Evil
THE PROZAC CHALLENGE
Let’s face it; the whole notion of ‘Sin’ is very passé. We live in the ‘Prozac’ generation and there’s what I call ‘The Prozac Challenge’ to Sin. Human behaviors can be controlled by medication! Perhaps ‘Sin’ is simply a brain/chemical dysfunction. Some believe ‘sin’ can be explained simply in terms of psychology and brain chemistry. More than that, ‘Sin’ to many is language used by the Church to manipulate others through guilt. “The notion of ‘sin’ and ‘damnation’ are tools of the church to seek its place of relevance.”
TOLKIEN’S EVIL: DISCORDANCE WITH ILLUATAR’S SONG
For Tolkien, the calamity of evil is a fundamental theme. We see this with the rebellion of Melkor in the Silmarillion’s first 17 pages dealing with Creation. Soon after God (Illuvatar) sings the world into being, an Ainur gone astray, Melkor sings a discordant theme that constantly sings a song which is at discord with the creative song of the Creator.
For Tolkien, Human existence ends up being, for all of us, a question of whether we sing along with the creative song of the Creator or sing/dance a discordant disruptive song. Evil is real, not imagined or a social concoction of some sort, for Tolkien. Watch this clip as Sauroman tries to force Gandalf into the service of the dark Lord Sauron.
Peter calls upon us similarly to life our lives in accordance with God’s divine purpose and intentions.
1So get rid of all malicious behavior and deceit. Don't just pretend to be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy and backstabbing. 2You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation.
THE POWER OF THE RINGS
The Rings, and the powers they represent, are all the powerful seduction of evil localized in one place. They represent the power to exert power independently from Illuvatar’s control or approval. What the rings offer are not necessarily evil, but invisibility, immortality and military power. Watch this clip.
Imagine what you would do with such a ring. What is to Bilbo an incredibly fun and funny toy is to Gandalf something of grave danger. Why is it that power corrupts and . . . you know the rest. Lord Acton’s words ring true for all time. We humans and hobbits have a hard time with true power – it goes to our heads and hearts so easily. Why? It is this great calamity of evil, and the good forces of providence that deliver us from it which Tolkien most fundamentally wants to illustrate in his work.
WHAT SIN ISN’T
Let’s start out by saying what sin is not since some views trivialize it. Sin is not a matter of majority opinion. Pollsters regularly print opinions about what people think is right and wrong. Sin is simply doing what most other people think is wrong. Sin is worse than simply going against the majority.
Sin is not merely doing what is in bad taste socially. Imagine if the announcer Daniel Boone Festival sponsored a belching contest over the loudspeakers. He would have breached all standards of social etiquette, but this is not necessarily sinful. Sin is much more, much worse than doing what is in bad taste. It is more and much worse than just doing what is in bad taste.
Sin is not a violation of human standards at all, but a violation of God’s standards. Sin is fundamentally a God-related concept. Evil here is much more than simply a social convention but a bending of one’s will to the will of one who does not share power. Evil is not simply the dark side of an impersonal force (as in Star Wars), evil, in its purest form, is a rejection of the true Lord of the Ring.
I’m going to proceed by defining and describing sin. Next week, on a more hopeful topic, we will talk about the theme of redemption and providence. This week we examine the darker theme of human tendency to evil. Rather than define sin, Tolkien simply describes it in these ways.
Sin is the desire to live outside our creaturely boundaries, to do as we please without external controls. Sin is the desire to be free from restrictions. That is the lure of the ring; specifically, giving the capacity for invisibility, immortality and power, it unleashes the owner from the mast of human frailty. Maybe it would be innocent playfulness, as when Bilbo uses the ring to confound those who came to his birthday party, but Gandalf sees the darker danger of such power.
Tolkien depicts the rings as having incredible seductive power. We humans do not have the moral strength to handle complete power. Even Gandalf will not take the ring, knowing that he would use it for good, but evil would result.
In the beginning of the Fellowship of the Rings, Bilbo has a very difficult time giving the ring back to Gandalf to be given over to Frodo. Bilbo is almost swept up into the lure of the ring and its seductions. Watch this clip.
In the end, Return of the King, Frodo cannot make himself throw the ring into the Cracks of Doom. Only when Gollum bites it off his finger and does a victory dance, and accidentally falls into the fire is it destroyed. Only providence in the end - operating through Gollum’s craven need for the ring - brings deliverance.
Sin is self-destructive and self-deceptive. While one believes they are doing what they please, they soon discover that they are trapped by the very thing they thought gave them freedom. Evil punishes itself, for its disordered love turns into a secret hatred of the very thing it idolizes, as Gandalf explains about Gollum, who is completely destroyed by his 500 years of possession of the ring.
In the Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf says, “All the ‘great secrets’ under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night; there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more; he hated everything and the ring most of all. . . He hated it and loved it, as he hated and loved himself.” In the same scene in the movie, we see.
CS Lewis describes the bondage of sin this way. Sin increases in desire but decreasing in pleasure. The more you do what is wrong, the more you want it, but the less you really find pleasure in it, and you find yourself addicted to doing something that doesn’t really give you pleasure. That is the bondage of sin.
It is important for us to realize, however, that the notion of sin is fundamental to our faith. Being a Christian makes no sense if you don’t believe in sin. The atonement of Jesus is answer to problem of sin. CS Lewis said: “It is after you have realized that there is a real moral law, and a power behind the law, and that you have broken that law, and put yourself at wrong with that power, it is after all this and not a moment sooner that Christianity begins to talk.”
CONCLUSION
The real message of LOTR is about the potential calamity of evil alive in the world, and of the need we all have of being redeemed from our own darker nature. We are all, something like Bilbo, hanging on to the ring which gives us power but will destroy us. Gandalf, who is a Christ figure, looks at us and says, “I’m not trying to steal the ring from you, I want to help you!” Redemption begins by humbly facing up to the potential we all have for evil, and saying, “Yes, I need to be rid of this. I trust you, Lord that you have my good at heart when you require me to repent and believe. You don’t want to steal from me or manipulate me – you want to set me free to really live.”
Part of the reason why I come to church – said this in a previous sermon – is because I know my own potential for evil. It was when I came to grips with my darker nature that the Gospel began to speak to me. Before that it was all repulsive and very irrelevant. And I think that, rather than being a dark and depressing message, these darker notes of the gospel have the glorious power of bringing liberation.
A person often feels greatest freedom and happiness when they have finally confessed their spiritual need. It is liberating and refreshing to the soul. So I ask you, have you handed over your control of the ring to the ultimate ring maker? Has your darker nature frightened you before – have you looked closely at it? Grace only begins when contrition happens. Let the grace begin today in your life, in my life, in this holy place!