Sermon On Crying Wolf

Criss Jami, an American poet, essayist and musician once remarked: “Like crying wolf, if you keep looking for sympathy as a justification for your actions, you will someday be left standing alone when you really need help.” Revelation 13:1 reminds us: “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.”

Crying wolf is defined as a call for help when it is not needed, culminating in a possible non-belief by others when aid is truly required. It is fundamentally about the abuse of trust. It originates from an Aesop fable entitled: “The boy who cried wolf.” A young shepherd boy, bored while watching his flock, repeatedly tricks the villagers by shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" and making them believe a wolf is attacking his sheep. The kind villagers rush to his aid multiple times, only to find no wolf and become angry at the boy's prank. Eventually, a real wolf appears and begins to attack the sheep. The boy cries out for help again, but because of his previous false alarms, the villagers dismiss his cries as another lie and no one comes to his rescue, leading to the loss of the sheep and, in some versions of the story, the boy himself.

The moral of the story and the derived idiom is that habitual liars lose their credibility, making it difficult for others to trust them even when they are telling the truth. The act of "crying wolf" is unusual, primarily because it is a self-destructive behavior rooted in deceit, which ultimately destroys the speaker's own credibility and community trust, often when they need it most. The phenomenon of people tuning out repeated, non-credible warnings is now sometimes referred to as "alarm fatigue" or "cry-wolf syndrome". In modern English, "crying wolf" is a common expression used to caution against deceit and the potential consequences of making false claims.

Deception is fundamentally entwined with corruption, acting as both a primary mechanism (a tool) for carrying out corrupt activities and an inherent characteristic of the abuse of power for private gain. Corruption, generally defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, almost always relies on some form of dishonesty or secrecy to succeed and avoid detection. Revelation 18:1-11 describes the impending, sudden, and devastating judgment of "Babylon the Great," a symbolic city representing corrupt, materialistic, and idolatrous world systems (both religious and commercial). A heavenly voice calls God's people to "come out of her" to escape sharing her sins and plagues, which include destruction by fire, famine, and pestilence, causing kings and merchants to lament the loss of their wealth and trade. The passage reminds us: “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.” And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.”

In communication and psychology, the “Crying wolf phenomenon” is a real-world problem. Repeated false alarms (e.g., in medical monitoring, news reporting, or even government warnings) cause people to become desensitized and ignore future warnings, even real ones. While the traditional moral is "liars are not believed even when they tell the truth", some modern interpretations suggest the story of the boy who cried wolf is also a lesson for the "village" (society). This perspective argues that the community should always remain mindful and responsive to all cries for help, as children, especially, may be acting out of boredom or a need for attention rather than malice. The dangers of boredom include increased impulsiveness leading to substance abuse, gambling, or reckless behavior; poorer mental health, manifesting as depression, anxiety, and negative thinking; and potential physical issues like headaches or fatigue, with chronic boredom linked to lower life satisfaction and motivation, though boredom can also spur creativity and exploration when managed well.