At the heart of it, this is what I think being a werewolf can be about: Transforming into a creature no one recognizes so you can either act differently from your “proper” self while giving into your more bestial nature.

In preparing for this message, I decided I needed to watch a wide variety of television shows which featured werewolves since this is what seems to be the best place to find this rather popular creature. Shows such as Wolf Blood, The Originals, and a variety of others were poured over. I also took time to make sure I watched and rewatched a few werewolf movies. Movies such as An American Werewolf in London, Curse, and, of course, the original The Wolfman starring Lon Chaney were viewed with a great amount of pleasure. As an aside, I sometimes think An American Werewolf in London may have been the one I first saw. I still remember seeing it as a young man and the story and special effects sticking with me to this day. Out of all the movies, though, I found myself returning to the original black and white with Lon Chaney. Why? Because the spirituality in the movie was so clear and religion and superstition were not avoided. In other movies, these things might be mentioned but they were often avoided or, at times, made out to be a joke. In the original, these themes just seemed so natural.

So, you’re going to need a little background of The Wolfman movie in case you’ve never seen it. Lawrence “Larry” Talbot returns home to England from America after the death of his older brother to help his father, Sir Jon Talbot, with the family estate. During the process of killing a werewolf who is attacking a young lady, he finds himself bit and later becomes a werewolf himself.  Larry struggles with turning into a beast and finds himself rampaging through the countryside killing innocent villagers. He is eventually killed by a silver cane he had purchased earlier in the movie…a can wielded by his father, Sir Jon.

Now, I should take a moment and talk about the term used to describe a person who turns into an animal. That word is lycanthropy and I’ve been familiar with it over the years. The interesting thing is the Scripture I chose for today is from Daniel 4 and, in the Wesley Study Bible, it uses that very word to describe what happens to King Nebuchadnezzar. It defines lycanthropy as, “a known psychosis in which people imagine they are animals.”

In the movie, Sir Jon Talbot defines this lycanthropy while talking to his son as, “a technical expression for something very simple: the good and evil in every man’s soul.” And is best seen in the words of a poem recited several times during the film:

And this is the heart of what we, as Methodists, call Wesleyan Theology. A diseased soul versus a depraved soul.

This is the struggle faced by King Nebuchadnezzar. This king, in the very first chapter of Daniel, is said to have been given victory over Daniel’s people by God. All of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is a gift from God and, if we look hard enough, we can see some of the good things which this King does. However, there is also the evil within Nebuchadnezzar’s own soul. There is a pride and arrogance that continues to plague him time and time again. There are times when he requires all the people to worship him as a sign of their loyalty and, when three of Daniel’s compatriots do not do it, he throws them in a fiery furnace from which they are delivered by God. Still Nebuchadnezzar sees himself as the source from which all his success comes and ultimately has a dream from God telling this King if he doesn’t recognize the source of his success he will turn into a beast. This is the story we have just read…Nebuchadnezzar becomes a beast.

Isn’t this a story that speaks to our world today? The American dream (myth) is about how we are a self-made people. How we supposedly succeeded without help from any other person and made our own way in the world. In one way or another we try and take the credit and it’s especially true for those who may not have had supportive family members. We have heard this type of talk many times and our culture has made an idol of the person who seemingly succeeds with no help from others. However, at the end of the day, there is a God who says all of our success is rooted and grounded in His very being. This God is the source of all goodness and mercy which surrounds us. We Wesleyans call this prevenient grace and we can find the beginnings of redemption in it.

The beast within, The Wolfman if you will, comes out when we live a life without acknowledging something or someone greater than ourselves. I would says this even applies to those who may or may not believe in God. Along the way all of us have experienced help in one form or another. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a teacher, or a relative who encouraged us to succeed. Maybe it was a scholarship or a government grant which helped us attain an education which would have otherwise been unattainable. Maybe it was that first chance someone took on us to give us a job even though there didn’t seem to be anything special about us at the time. Somewhere, somehow, along the way, we have been gifted with help and, just like Nebuchadnezzar, we are called to acknowledge it.

I would say, of course, as a follower of Christ we are called to take things one step further. We should give thanks and honor to God for each and every chance we have had in life. Those times of success and failure are gifts from the Creator to form us into Christ’s image and make us something more. They call us into a life of covenant with each other and with the One who has made us.

And speaking of covenant/relationship/commitment to one another, I want us to take a moment and return to our Gospel story from Mark 5. In it we heard about a man who was possessed with an evil spirit. Isn’t that like a werewolf? Some beast inside trying to claw its way out causing pain and destruction all around it? In the movies I’ve seen and all the books I’ve read over the years, being a werewolf is looked upon as a curse from which to be delivered. Sadly, in the majority of the movies I’ve seen, the only cure for that curse comes through the death of the person infected with this lycanthropy. However, as we’ve seen in the story of Nebuchadnezzar, after his time of punishment for his pride there comes repentance and deliverance. In this story from Mark’s Gospel, we see that an encounter with Jesus brings healing from the monster which had invaded a man’s soul. Isn’t that salvation? A wholeness making us better than we were before? A deliverance from the demons within and the chains which have been holding us in the graveyard of life? Isn’t salvation Christ leading and directing us from the place of destruction and evil to a place of mercy and healing?

Yet, when I read this story in Mark, I’m reminded of another line from Sir Jon Talbot in The Wolfman. (It seems he got all the great lines since Lon Chaney, the actor playing Larry Talbot, was an American and didn’t have the cool British accent.) Sir Jon said this, “Larry, for some people life is very simple. They decide this is good that is bad; this is wrong, that is right…[they place the world in a stark black and white] others of us find that good, bad, right, wrong, are many-sided complex things. We try to see every side.”

Unfortunately, in this Gospel story from Mark, the people around this demon possessed man saw everything in black and white. They were not willing to see another side. These people in Gerasa thought they had the world figured out. This man was demon possessed so they let him run amok day and night. Oh, they tried to chain him up but, beyond that, it doesn’t seem like they cared for him very much. He was causing problems so he had to be put out of sight and out of mind.

This is the same way I viewed Larry Talbot in The Wolfman. Here is a troubled soul and many people in the community wanted to put him away. They didn’t embrace him or care for him. He was different. He didn’t seem a part of their community because he had been gone so long they had not desire for covenant/commitment to him. This reality was ever so true when Larry, feeling the weight of his guilt and pain while struggling with the beast within, walks into the church and sees everyone staring at him. He is made to feel so uncomfortable that he doesn’t stay for the service and turns and walks out.

Yet isn’t the church the best place for someone struggling with the beast within? Shouldn’t the church be the place of love and grace where a person struggling with the pain of sin and the struggles of a fearful world would find a few moments of peace and acceptance? Sadly, we look at the werewolves of our culture, the strange “beasts” and keep them away from the one place where they should be finding hope and acceptance…and this is The Theology of Werewolves. The beast is shunned and hurt. Hidden away among the tombs of this world and never given an opportunity for healing.

But where does this beast come from? In the movie, Larry Talbot is a tragic figure because he becomes a werewolf through no evil of his own. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar whose pride strikes him low, Larry is a perfect example of the old phrase “No good deed going unpunished.” He becomes The Wolf Man simply because he wanted to rescue someone from being hurt.

And, once more, we are reminded of the poem:

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

Sin scratches at the door of each and everyone of us and it is through no fault of our own. It is just the way of the world. What, then, is the solution? Do we stop doing good? Do we just drift to the side? Do we avoid as much as we can so as to keep ourselves safe? This is how holiness has been defined for so very long. Avoid the world. Avoid sin. Avoid anything that might have the semblance of the monstrous about it.

Yet, this is not the way Jesus is…Jesus comes across this man filled with demons…filled with beasts…and Jesus grants him hope, freedom, and healing. Then this Jesus does the unthinkable. He casts those demons into a bunch of swine who run off a cliff. And then all the people celebrate because their friend is now in his right mind? They throw a party because the prodigal has come home, right? No. No. No.

Instead they’re afraid, angry, and upset. Why? Why would they be so angry? Well, Jesus just cost them a lot of money. These people were Gentiles, obviously, because they raised and ate swine. Now, I don’t know about you but I tend to eat pork quite a bit. Every where I turn there is pork for sale. Why? Because it’s easy to raise, easy to sell, and easy to cook. It was the same way in Jesus’ world. Jesus, in healing this man, just hit these people in their own pockets so He might bring healing to what they saw as an undeserving monster.

So, the question of the day is, “How will we react when Jesus does something amazing to the beasts within our own hearts? Are we willing to pay the price?” I believe most people would say, “Yes” they are are willing to pay the price of time, money, and effort when it involves ourselves and possibly a close family member. However, are we willing to pay the price when it involves those beasts “out there?” Those monsters lurking in the graveyards of the world around us? Are we willing to put in the money, time, and effort to see Jesus heal the outsider, the stranger, the beast roaming the tombs of this world?

It is a costly thing to follow this Jesus and it’s even more costly when we see Him working in the lives of others. When following this Jesus, we pay the ultimate price when we willingly give up our lives for others. “No greater love has a person than this, than to lay down their lives for their friends…” but isn’t the greatest love of all to lay down our lives for our enemies?

To destroy the curse of the werewolf we need Jesus. We need the one who has the power to grant the request of healing so needed within our souls and the souls of those around us. We just need to make sure it doesn’t cause us to run this Jesus off when the price of it hits too close to home. At the end of the day, we need the help of heaven right here and right now…and that help is found in the person and reality of the Living Lord Jesus.

Today I want to end with the words of Sir Jon Talbot from The Wolfman, “You know, Larry, belief in the hereafter is a very healthy counter balance to all the conflicting doubts man is plagued with these days.” Those words were said in the mid-1940s to a world in crisis yet they still ring true today. So, I’ll phrase them to be a bit more theologically correct, “You know, folks, belief in a real, living Jesus is a very healthy counter balance to all the conflicting doubts humanity is plagued with these days.”

Would you believe? Would you be healed? Come to this Jesus. Come…come to this Jesus and find blessed assurance…find a foretaste of that glory divine.