“Envy”

Exodus 20:17

Genesis 4:8: Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.

Matthew 20:15: Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?

I Corinthians 3:5-7: What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

[prayer]

In his sermon to the 1976 graduating class of Union Seminary William Sloan Coffin said something that I’ve never forgotten, ‘Ministers are like manure. They’re great as long as they’re spread out over the field, but when you bring them together in a heap they tend to stink.”

From whence comes this stench? Envy. Ministers are just as competitive as everybody else. As sinful human beings living in a sinful world, and as captives of a narcissistic, competitive, consumer-oriented culture, we get caught up in the numbers game, the salary game, the how-high’s-the- steeple-at-your-church game, the what-books-have-you-had-published game. We measure ourselves against our colleagues and classmates, forgetting the lesson Paul taught those early Corinthian Christians.

Paul was very clear in stating, “It’s not about me. Nor is it about Peter or Apollos. It’s about God. We do what we do in service to him. Any success we might experience as church builders is his success. He gets the glory. He gets the honor. We merely do the work to which he has called us in whatever place it is that he has put us.”

That particular message has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. In less than two months I’ll be attending the 30^th Reunion Luncheon of my seminary class. Some have written books. Some do teach in seminaries. Some are pastors of high steeple churches. I have to take care not to fall into that competitive trap our culture teaches us so well. I have to remember Paul’s words about having done the work God has called me to do in the places he has put me over the last thirty years. It’s not about me.

But, man, that envy bullet is hard to dodge. God has made it very clear in his Word that we are not to covet what others have: not their money, not their success, not their popularity, not their status. We are instead supposed to be thankful for the good gifts God has given us. In my case a wonderful wife, beautiful daughter, two incredibly lovable grandchildren, and the privilege of being the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church.

Coveting, a sin with which we’ll also be dealing - directly or indirectly - as we deal with greed, gluttony, and lust, is, simply put: an unlawful desire for something that belongs to another. It’s an inner impulse that can lead us into outward action. Look what happened when God favored Abel’s gift over Cain’s. Cain so coveted that favor – he so envied Abel’s relationship with God - that he killed his brother. And speaking of brothers, was not the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son eaten up with envy over his father’s joyous response to his ne’er-do-well little brother’s homecoming?

Another Biblical example: King David coveted Bathsheba enough to commit adultery and murder in order to possess her. He misused his God-given power and authority to arrange for Uriah’s death. Envy, lust, and even gluttony, as it’s more broadly defined, led David to commit horrible sins.

And then there was that other well-known Biblical example of absolute power absolutely corrupting its wielder. Knowing that her husband, King Ahab, coveted Naboth’s vineyard, and not wanting to see him pout, Jezebel had false charges brought against Naboth that resulted in his death. Once again covetousness - envy - eventually led to murder.

Envy is not a good thing. In the third chapter of his letter to Titus Paul wrote these words about the sin of envy, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” Despicable: that’s what envy makes us. It’s akin to malice. In fact, the Latin word from which envy is derived means “to look upon maliciously.” And it’s not all that far removed from hatred. That’s quite an unholy trinity there: malice, envy, and hatred, with envy right in the middle.

Now for some of those quotes similar to those with which I’ve been starting my sermons of late. First, two short lines from Stephen Shoemaker: “Envy is the sorrow of another’s success and the joy of another’s misfortune.” [and] “[Envy is] hankering after the blessing given to others, disparaging the blessing given us.” And then from Frederick Buechner: “Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody [be] as unsuccessful as you are.”

And as usual Dorothy Sayers can be counted on for a good quote: “[Envy] begins by asking, plausibly: Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy? And it ends by demanding: Why should others enjoy what I may not? Envy is the great leveler: if it cannot level things up, it will level things down.”

Back to covetousness. The underlying reason that we covet what others have is that we don’t trust God’s ability to provide. Coveting is a symptom of fear, anxiety, and lack of faith. It’s also a sign of our discontent with the life God has given us. The real evil of coveting – of envy - is that we end up despising what God has given us. Instead of praising God for his gracious provision we end up rejecting his gifts. O, we use them. We might resent them, but rarely do we give them back. Sometimes we even waste them. But we don’t appreciate them. Why? Envy.

Envy does not square with the Gospel message of servanthood, humility, and self-denial. When Jesus detected among his disciples any sort of envy toward one another he had something to say about the first being last and the leader of all being the servant of all. He also addressed head on the issues of anxiety over the basics of life. His message? Trust God to provide. “Give us this day our daily bread.” It matters not if somebody else gets more of it than we do.

The earliest Christians were not envious people. Those first believers in Jerusalem gladly shared what they had with one another. Possessions weren’t coveted or envied; they were given away to others, as each had need.

Paul never envied Peter. He disagreed with him. He got mad at him. He quite possibly had some words of reproof for him. But never once did Paul envy Peter’s status in the infant church.

Nor did he ever envy the popularity Apollos enjoyed in Corinth. He never coveted anybody else’s ministry. He was too busy being faithful at carrying out his own. He was simply thankful for the privilege of being any kind of apostle at all. He was positively overwhelmed by the reality that, by God’s unfathomable grace, he was counted among God’s elect at all. He truly appreciated who he was and what he had.

I must admit that there have been times during my thirty years of ordained ministry when I haven’t appreciated who I was or what I had. I have envied the success of other pastors. I’ve caught myself listening to an occasional high steeple preacher’s sermon and thinking that I could do it better.

There were times in West Virginia when I resented not being at a church like Grace. There were times when I felt like a failure because my ecclesiastical career wasn’t as advanced as those of some of my colleagues and classmates. And when I listened to a certain friend of mine constantly complain about how bad his churches were I often felt like telling him to shut up and enjoy what he had. In part that would have been appropriately healthy advice, but only in part. Because there were times when I would have chopped off my right arm for the opportunity to serve some of those churches. I was envious.

In retrospect I know how childish I was being. I know how privileged I was to serve some of those small country churches. And I realize that some of those pulpits I lusted after were heart attacks waiting to happen. When it comes right down to it, like Paul, I am so grateful for the opportunity to do ministry at all. And I can honestly tell you what I often tell Sandy, “I hope you keep liking me, because you’re stuck with me.” And at my class reunion, if the stench of envy is in the air, it won’t be coming from me. Amen.