Deadly Sins: Envy (05-Oct-2)
Seven Deadly Sins M 3 Envy October 2 2005
The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm
In the movie Amadeus, Salieri was the court musician in Vienna. He worked hard at his music, writing reasonably good melodies and choral pieces.
As a young man he had prayed fervently, "God, Let me make music that will glorify you… Through my music, help me lift the hearts of people to heaven.”
Then came boy wonder--young Mozart. He music dazzled people. His melodies were complex and fun all at the same time, they soared and seemed to bring heaven to earth.
But Mozart, as the film portrayed him, was immature, vain, and vulgar. He chased girls around the room and he giggled with a silly irritating laugh. Salieri grew green with envy. Why should Mozart be blessed with such talents? Salieri lived a holy and obedient life. Mozart was worldly brat! Salieri spent a lifetime of hard and tedious work. Why should it all come so easily for the young Mozart?
Envy. Envy has traditionally has been considered the secondly deadly after pride and has been seen as the most pervasive deadly sin.
Envy at one level or another, affects us all.
This morning we’re going to look at the nature of envy and how we can deal with this, green-eyed monster through the story of Saul and David.
If you have your Bibles please turn to 1 Samuel 18.
In the previous chapter, David the young shepherd has killed the giant Goliath with a sling and a stone.
Saul's Jealousy of David
1 After David had finished talking with Saul (i.e. King Saul of Israel, who though considerably bigger than David did not want to fight Goliath) , Jonathan (King Saul’s son) became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
5 Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well.
6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. 7 As they danced, they sang:
"Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands."
8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David (in the New Testament the word translated envy literally evil eye).
10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice.
As I said earlier, pride has traditionally been listed as the first “Deadly Sin” and envy the second deadly sin.
Pride has traditionally been listed as the first deadly sin, in part because it’s a kind of gateway sin that leads to other sins.
One of the sins that pride causes us to commit is the sin of envy.
We see this pattern in Saul. When Saul was first about to be proclaimed King by the prophet Samuel, Saul was hiding among the baggage. He didn’t think he was worthy to be King! He had been humble to a fault. But he became King. And as his power and wealth increased, Saul became proud. When you are proud you feel like you are entitled to all the “good” things of life and you become resentful, envious if someone seems to be enjoying them instead of you.
When David was praised for his military conquests and the women sang as they danced, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." The text tells that Saul became angry and from that time on he kept a jealous eye on David.
Why was Saul so angry, so jealous, so envious? Because Saul was proud and felt he was the one entitled to praise!
Back when I was in high school, I remember a friend of mine named Rod telling me about what had happened at his high school awards night. At a certain point in the evening someone from the platform announced “This year’s male athlete of the year is…” A student stood up and turned toward to the aisle but the announcer ended up calling someone else’s name, he called my friend Rod’s name. My friend Rod said I couldn’t believe they choose me, I am volley ball player! I thought for sure they’d choose the guy who stood up.
I didn’t know the other guy, but I imagine if he had the pride to presume that he was the school’s male athlete of the year and saw someone else getting the award, he would not just be disappointed, he’d be angry and envious.
Pride leads to envy.
Richard Rohr says, Too much of a fixation on “I coupled “I have a right to” will lead to hate.
Too much of a fixation on “I” coupled with “I have right to” (i.e. pride) will also lead to envy.
Coveting is a sin, but envy is a deadly sin.
Coveting says, I want your grades, I want your job, your looks, your artistic gifts, your money, your partner, your car, your tattoo, whatever.
Envy is an intensified cousin of covet. Envy says I want your __________ and I don’t want you to have it.
Envy is not so much about looking up to someone, but it’s wanting to bring some down.
Like the guy who opened a bottle and out came the genie. And the genie I said I’ll give whatever wish you want, but whatever your rival is going twice as much of what you want me to give you. So, if you ask for a million your rival gets 2 million. You ask for a Ferrari, your rival gets two. The guy thought about for a moment and said, “Scare half to death.”
Envy causes to want to bring some else down…
In Iowa two striking women found themselves grappling with for the same boyfriend. Cindy and Sonya had grown up together and had competed in local beauty contests. Cindy was Miss Harvest Queen and Sonya was named Miss Homecoming Queen. But, the competition between them really intensified when they both fell in love with Jim a strapping, promising and eligible young man. Jim began dating Cindy, but ended up leaving Cindy for Sonya. Sonya felt as though Jim and Sonya had stabbed her in the ribs. It was bad enough that Cindy had lost Jim, but what was even worse was the thought that her rival Sonya had walked off with her trophy and that her hated rival was living in bliss/ So Cindy slew Sonya. One night Cindy strangled Sonya with a leather belt.
Envy, of course, does not always lead a person to bring to destroy another in such a dramatic way.
But does envy inclines for us to bring others down in one form or another.
Henry Fairlie, in his perceptive book the Seven Deadly Sins says what we are unable to achieve we bring low.
If we can’t compete in something, we can try to “change the standards.”
If we can’t tennis very well, we can say let’s play without the net and with any lines. I am now landing 100% of my first serve, hey that’s better Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova. I don’t what you call that, but that’s not tennis.
A person isn’t very artistic, paints something and a friend says euphemistically, unique, never seen anything quite like. The person says I am avant guard—brand new genere…
We can bring the achievements low by changing the standards, we can bring others low by using the conjunction but,
“He may be really good at school, but no common sense.”
Or a lot of guys do think she’s really pretty, but she’s so superficial.
Drive through an upscale neighborhood they may be rich, but their not happy.
Or bring others low, buy making an unfavorable comparison…
You impressed with that lawn? I’ve have friend whose lawn is like a putting green…
Or you think Jane’s daughter is good at violin, ohhhh you should listen to my niece…
Envy seeks to brings others low, but will also bring us low….
Like pride, envy guts our joy.
Saul in our story envies David and his envy leads him to try to hurt David… The text tells us an evil spirit from God comes over him… This text may mean that God who has power of over the demons sends or allows an evil Spirit to torment Saul. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, points out that this description of an evil spirit may simply an ancient way for people to describe a mental illness…
But, however, you interpret this difficult passage… There’s clearly a link between between Saul’s envy and the destruction of his personal well being… His envy seems to open the door to anger, depression, violence.
Envy has a way of destroying our joy and our well being.
Some sins are “enjoyable—at least for a time” envy makes the envier miserable.
Envy makes a person “stew in their juices.”
The more the envy the greater the torment.
When David was praised, Saul became furious.
Sir John Gielgud the gifted British actor who specialized in Shakespearean roles said with great candor, “When Laurance Olivier played Hamlet, and I critics raved, I wept.”
Envy also hurts us in that it also prevents us from learning from others.
If we envy someone we can’t learn from them.
We tend to be envious of those with whom we share something in common: students tend to envy students, artists artists, athletes, athletes, academics, academics, ministers, ministers… (My friend Pete Scazzero from spoke here earlier this year. Pete’s of Italian ancestry and he comes a family of bakers. He says every year there’s this big baker’s national convention. He says uncle at these convention wants to have the better cannoli this year than that baker from Ohio.)
Sounds stupid, but we do the same in our field.
How does this hurt us? If we envy someone in our field, we really lose the opportunity to learn from them.
My younger brother is artist and an aspiring film maker who hosts a national arts program (when his company the CBC is not on strike at least). He’s my little brother, but I have much to learn from his creativity. If I saw him as my competitor, as a threat I would forfeit the opportunity to learn from him.
David was a young, but he was an extraordinary warrior. If Saul were humble he could learn from David, but he was proud and envious and wanted to kill him.
So envy can hurt us by gutting our joy and preventing us from learning from others.
So how do we overcome envy?
Resist comparing to others and recognize your unique call. Studies have shown that people who tend to compare with others, tend to be less happy.
Resist the temptation to compare and embrace our unique call.
Rabbi Zushya says, “In the next world, God will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ He’ll ask me, ‘Why were you not Zushya?’”
When the next life, God will not ask why were not your rival, but why were you not your self?
We can overcome envy by recognizing God’s grace to us.
Jonah the prophet was called by God to preach to the Ninevites, who were the ruthless enemies for the Israelites. He didn’t want to preach to them because if he were “successful” in his preaching mission and they turned to God, he didn’t want God to bless his hated enemies. So when God calls Jonah to the Ninevites, what does he do? Instead of going to East Nineveh in modern day Iraq, Jonah jumps on a boat going West to Spain.
The ship ends up floating into a storm and Jonah ends up being thrown overboard by the crew because they realize God has sent the storm because Jonah is running from God.
Jonah thinks he’s going to die, but God sends a large fish, in the belly of the whale Jonah realizes that God has been merciful to him this racist, bigoted sinner… so Jonah becomes willing, though somewhat reluctant, to offer God’s Word to his enemies.
When we realize how merciful God has been to us, we are more likely to be ok with God being more loving to others.
A person, who I confess resenting is Martha Stewart (and not for the reasons that some of you may resent her. I don’t aspire to set the perfect Thanksgiving table). I resent that the fact that she’s become the homemaking guru, but has drove away her husband and members of her family in the process. I resent the fact that after she was convicted of inside trading her stock went up 400% during one period and now she plays the role as the host of the Apprentice.
Then I have to say wait a minute, do I really deserve to be pastor of Tenth Avenue Church—no. Do I deserve to be married to such a great person? No. Did I deserve my parents? No. Did deserve to be adopted by God? No.
When I take a deep look at myself, and say boy you in so many ways, you’ve an irresponsible idiot!
But, look at the way God has blessed you!
OK… God bless Martha Stewart…
There’s a minister who’s sort of mentor figure to me named Tim Keller and once when he was a young pastor, there was a teenager who came to see him. She was really skinny--skinny to the point of being unattractive… She’s complaining that she so depressed because no boys ever showed any interest in her. Tim says you don’t need to be discouraged, you don’t need to feel bad—after fall, don’t you realize Jesus loves you and Jesus died for you and you belong to Jesus?
This teenager responds, yeah so… what good is that if I can’t any dates?
We roll our eyes at her, but don’t we do that ourselves? Don’t we forget how blessed we are and instead focus on some else who seems more blessed than us?
It’s as we realize how much grace we’ve given by God that we can give grace to others…
How else do we overcome envy?
There’s some I admire, who I’m also tempted to envy. Some time ago this person, promised to do something I had asked him to do, but then at the last minute felt he had back out (don’t worry it’s no one here). So, I am also tempted to resent him.
I came across this person recently and as he’s come to mind I pray for him.
Jesus told us in his sermon, to love our enemies and to pray for those who hurt us.
He said this obviously for the sake our enemies and our relationships, but I also believe he said this for our sake, because there is a healing in us when we pray those we want to hate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in Life Together the most significant thing we can do for another is pray for them. He writes:
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others.
There’s healing that occurs when we pray for others.
Embrace your unique call, realize God’s grace, pray for those you’re tempted to envy.
As we come to the Lord’s table let’s remember God’s grace to us…
On the night he was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said this is my body broken for you…
This blood shed for you…
As we remember we have grace… we can in turn bless others…
The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm
In the movie Amadeus, Salieri was the court musician in Vienna. He worked hard at his music, writing reasonably good melodies and choral pieces.
As a young man he had prayed fervently, "God, Let me make music that will glorify you… Through my music, help me lift the hearts of people to heaven.”
Then came boy wonder--young Mozart. He music dazzled people. His melodies were complex and fun all at the same time, they soared and seemed to bring heaven to earth.
But Mozart, as the film portrayed him, was immature, vain, and vulgar. He chased girls around the room and he giggled with a silly irritating laugh. Salieri grew green with envy. Why should Mozart be blessed with such talents? Salieri lived a holy and obedient life. Mozart was worldly brat! Salieri spent a lifetime of hard and tedious work. Why should it all come so easily for the young Mozart?
Envy. Envy has traditionally has been considered the secondly deadly after pride and has been seen as the most pervasive deadly sin.
Envy at one level or another, affects us all.
This morning we’re going to look at the nature of envy and how we can deal with this, green-eyed monster through the story of Saul and David.
If you have your Bibles please turn to 1 Samuel 18.
In the previous chapter, David the young shepherd has killed the giant Goliath with a sling and a stone.
Saul's Jealousy of David
1 After David had finished talking with Saul (i.e. King Saul of Israel, who though considerably bigger than David did not want to fight Goliath) , Jonathan (King Saul’s son) became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
5 Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well.
6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. 7 As they danced, they sang:
"Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands."
8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David (in the New Testament the word translated envy literally evil eye).
10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice.
As I said earlier, pride has traditionally been listed as the first “Deadly Sin” and envy the second deadly sin.
Pride has traditionally been listed as the first deadly sin, in part because it’s a kind of gateway sin that leads to other sins.
One of the sins that pride causes us to commit is the sin of envy.
We see this pattern in Saul. When Saul was first about to be proclaimed King by the prophet Samuel, Saul was hiding among the baggage. He didn’t think he was worthy to be King! He had been humble to a fault. But he became King. And as his power and wealth increased, Saul became proud. When you are proud you feel like you are entitled to all the “good” things of life and you become resentful, envious if someone seems to be enjoying them instead of you.
When David was praised for his military conquests and the women sang as they danced, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." The text tells that Saul became angry and from that time on he kept a jealous eye on David.
Why was Saul so angry, so jealous, so envious? Because Saul was proud and felt he was the one entitled to praise!
Back when I was in high school, I remember a friend of mine named Rod telling me about what had happened at his high school awards night. At a certain point in the evening someone from the platform announced “This year’s male athlete of the year is…” A student stood up and turned toward to the aisle but the announcer ended up calling someone else’s name, he called my friend Rod’s name. My friend Rod said I couldn’t believe they choose me, I am volley ball player! I thought for sure they’d choose the guy who stood up.
I didn’t know the other guy, but I imagine if he had the pride to presume that he was the school’s male athlete of the year and saw someone else getting the award, he would not just be disappointed, he’d be angry and envious.
Pride leads to envy.
Richard Rohr says, Too much of a fixation on “I coupled “I have a right to” will lead to hate.
Too much of a fixation on “I” coupled with “I have right to” (i.e. pride) will also lead to envy.
Coveting is a sin, but envy is a deadly sin.
Coveting says, I want your grades, I want your job, your looks, your artistic gifts, your money, your partner, your car, your tattoo, whatever.
Envy is an intensified cousin of covet. Envy says I want your __________ and I don’t want you to have it.
Envy is not so much about looking up to someone, but it’s wanting to bring some down.
Like the guy who opened a bottle and out came the genie. And the genie I said I’ll give whatever wish you want, but whatever your rival is going twice as much of what you want me to give you. So, if you ask for a million your rival gets 2 million. You ask for a Ferrari, your rival gets two. The guy thought about for a moment and said, “Scare half to death.”
Envy causes to want to bring some else down…
In Iowa two striking women found themselves grappling with for the same boyfriend. Cindy and Sonya had grown up together and had competed in local beauty contests. Cindy was Miss Harvest Queen and Sonya was named Miss Homecoming Queen. But, the competition between them really intensified when they both fell in love with Jim a strapping, promising and eligible young man. Jim began dating Cindy, but ended up leaving Cindy for Sonya. Sonya felt as though Jim and Sonya had stabbed her in the ribs. It was bad enough that Cindy had lost Jim, but what was even worse was the thought that her rival Sonya had walked off with her trophy and that her hated rival was living in bliss/ So Cindy slew Sonya. One night Cindy strangled Sonya with a leather belt.
Envy, of course, does not always lead a person to bring to destroy another in such a dramatic way.
But does envy inclines for us to bring others down in one form or another.
Henry Fairlie, in his perceptive book the Seven Deadly Sins says what we are unable to achieve we bring low.
If we can’t compete in something, we can try to “change the standards.”
If we can’t tennis very well, we can say let’s play without the net and with any lines. I am now landing 100% of my first serve, hey that’s better Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova. I don’t what you call that, but that’s not tennis.
A person isn’t very artistic, paints something and a friend says euphemistically, unique, never seen anything quite like. The person says I am avant guard—brand new genere…
We can bring the achievements low by changing the standards, we can bring others low by using the conjunction but,
“He may be really good at school, but no common sense.”
Or a lot of guys do think she’s really pretty, but she’s so superficial.
Drive through an upscale neighborhood they may be rich, but their not happy.
Or bring others low, buy making an unfavorable comparison…
You impressed with that lawn? I’ve have friend whose lawn is like a putting green…
Or you think Jane’s daughter is good at violin, ohhhh you should listen to my niece…
Envy seeks to brings others low, but will also bring us low….
Like pride, envy guts our joy.
Saul in our story envies David and his envy leads him to try to hurt David… The text tells us an evil spirit from God comes over him… This text may mean that God who has power of over the demons sends or allows an evil Spirit to torment Saul. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, points out that this description of an evil spirit may simply an ancient way for people to describe a mental illness…
But, however, you interpret this difficult passage… There’s clearly a link between between Saul’s envy and the destruction of his personal well being… His envy seems to open the door to anger, depression, violence.
Envy has a way of destroying our joy and our well being.
Some sins are “enjoyable—at least for a time” envy makes the envier miserable.
Envy makes a person “stew in their juices.”
The more the envy the greater the torment.
When David was praised, Saul became furious.
Sir John Gielgud the gifted British actor who specialized in Shakespearean roles said with great candor, “When Laurance Olivier played Hamlet, and I critics raved, I wept.”
Envy also hurts us in that it also prevents us from learning from others.
If we envy someone we can’t learn from them.
We tend to be envious of those with whom we share something in common: students tend to envy students, artists artists, athletes, athletes, academics, academics, ministers, ministers… (My friend Pete Scazzero from spoke here earlier this year. Pete’s of Italian ancestry and he comes a family of bakers. He says every year there’s this big baker’s national convention. He says uncle at these convention wants to have the better cannoli this year than that baker from Ohio.)
Sounds stupid, but we do the same in our field.
How does this hurt us? If we envy someone in our field, we really lose the opportunity to learn from them.
My younger brother is artist and an aspiring film maker who hosts a national arts program (when his company the CBC is not on strike at least). He’s my little brother, but I have much to learn from his creativity. If I saw him as my competitor, as a threat I would forfeit the opportunity to learn from him.
David was a young, but he was an extraordinary warrior. If Saul were humble he could learn from David, but he was proud and envious and wanted to kill him.
So envy can hurt us by gutting our joy and preventing us from learning from others.
So how do we overcome envy?
Resist comparing to others and recognize your unique call. Studies have shown that people who tend to compare with others, tend to be less happy.
Resist the temptation to compare and embrace our unique call.
Rabbi Zushya says, “In the next world, God will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ He’ll ask me, ‘Why were you not Zushya?’”
When the next life, God will not ask why were not your rival, but why were you not your self?
We can overcome envy by recognizing God’s grace to us.
Jonah the prophet was called by God to preach to the Ninevites, who were the ruthless enemies for the Israelites. He didn’t want to preach to them because if he were “successful” in his preaching mission and they turned to God, he didn’t want God to bless his hated enemies. So when God calls Jonah to the Ninevites, what does he do? Instead of going to East Nineveh in modern day Iraq, Jonah jumps on a boat going West to Spain.
The ship ends up floating into a storm and Jonah ends up being thrown overboard by the crew because they realize God has sent the storm because Jonah is running from God.
Jonah thinks he’s going to die, but God sends a large fish, in the belly of the whale Jonah realizes that God has been merciful to him this racist, bigoted sinner… so Jonah becomes willing, though somewhat reluctant, to offer God’s Word to his enemies.
When we realize how merciful God has been to us, we are more likely to be ok with God being more loving to others.
A person, who I confess resenting is Martha Stewart (and not for the reasons that some of you may resent her. I don’t aspire to set the perfect Thanksgiving table). I resent that the fact that she’s become the homemaking guru, but has drove away her husband and members of her family in the process. I resent the fact that after she was convicted of inside trading her stock went up 400% during one period and now she plays the role as the host of the Apprentice.
Then I have to say wait a minute, do I really deserve to be pastor of Tenth Avenue Church—no. Do I deserve to be married to such a great person? No. Did I deserve my parents? No. Did deserve to be adopted by God? No.
When I take a deep look at myself, and say boy you in so many ways, you’ve an irresponsible idiot!
But, look at the way God has blessed you!
OK… God bless Martha Stewart…
There’s a minister who’s sort of mentor figure to me named Tim Keller and once when he was a young pastor, there was a teenager who came to see him. She was really skinny--skinny to the point of being unattractive… She’s complaining that she so depressed because no boys ever showed any interest in her. Tim says you don’t need to be discouraged, you don’t need to feel bad—after fall, don’t you realize Jesus loves you and Jesus died for you and you belong to Jesus?
This teenager responds, yeah so… what good is that if I can’t any dates?
We roll our eyes at her, but don’t we do that ourselves? Don’t we forget how blessed we are and instead focus on some else who seems more blessed than us?
It’s as we realize how much grace we’ve given by God that we can give grace to others…
How else do we overcome envy?
There’s some I admire, who I’m also tempted to envy. Some time ago this person, promised to do something I had asked him to do, but then at the last minute felt he had back out (don’t worry it’s no one here). So, I am also tempted to resent him.
I came across this person recently and as he’s come to mind I pray for him.
Jesus told us in his sermon, to love our enemies and to pray for those who hurt us.
He said this obviously for the sake our enemies and our relationships, but I also believe he said this for our sake, because there is a healing in us when we pray those we want to hate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in Life Together the most significant thing we can do for another is pray for them. He writes:
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others.
There’s healing that occurs when we pray for others.
Embrace your unique call, realize God’s grace, pray for those you’re tempted to envy.
As we come to the Lord’s table let’s remember God’s grace to us…
On the night he was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said this is my body broken for you…
This blood shed for you…
As we remember we have grace… we can in turn bless others…
posted by Shigematsu at 11:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home