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Mainline Christians rarely talk about evil. Some Christian groups talk too much about evil. For example, one of many conspiracy theories floating around these days is that “Satan” is now controlling the US government.

There is quite a difference in how Christians talk about evil. Many see a person as either good or evil. Others, like Lutherans, tend to see evil and good within each person. All of us do seem to think some people seem to emit more of one side or the other.

Another difference in addressing evil does have to do with Satan/the devil, Beelzebub, the Evil One…take your pick. Satan as you may know was first mentioned in the Bible in the book of Job (no, the Garden of Eden tempter was simply called a serpent, not a devil or Satan). In Job Satan is actually portrayed as an agent of God. Satan’s task in Job is similar to that of a prosecuting attorney, not someone lurking around the world bringing about destruction.

My point here is there is no one systematic and concise picture in Scripture of an evil being. What is scripturally clear is that evil exists and evil is a power and destructive force with which to be reckoned. How much destruction has been wrought upon the world by evil powers! How much is being wrought now by such powers! Typically evil wears a most beguiling disguise. It comes wearing the camouflage of good.

While we Lutherans tend to see evil more as force than being, I sometimes wish it was a simple as some evil being. We would have an enemy of one. The enemy would be known and we could probe its vulnerabilities until defeat was certain. But alas, if evil is a power, present in all people, and therefore all associations of people (church, government, kids’ sports teams, etc.) then the battlefields are many and scattered around the world. In fact, to quote cartoonist Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy and he is us”, a play on the words of Naval officer Oliver Hazzard Perry in the War of 1812 to General, later (briefly) president, William Harrison, “We have met the enemy and he is ours.”

That is the problem with evil. It is everywhere and it has found a home even with us. It bubbles outward in hate. It surfaces in acts petty and large. It is hidden in systems in which we willingly participate. It is there both seen and hidden from us. As a power and force often sold as something good evil is far more difficult to defeat than were it contained to a being who was out simply looking for recruits.

Fortunately we do not struggle with evil alone. There are those in the church struggling with us. Those whom we know, and those around the world whom we shall never know. There is the power of good, constantly renewed and strengthened in faith as we worship, serve, learn, repent, and forgive. This power is none other than the power of Christ, through Christ’s very body, the church. It comes in word, sacrament, as we gather together. That power too is everywhere. That power too is within and through us. So on we struggle, battle by battle; together, with the presence of Christ.